THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
PROTOPLASM ;
OR,
Life, Matter, and Mind.
ARISTOPH. Aves, 686.
PROTOPLASM ;
OR,
LIFE, MATTER, AND MIND.
BY
LIONEL S. BEALE, M.B., F.R.S,
Fellow of the Royal College of Phyfidans ; Phyfician to King's College Hofpltal.
NUMEROUS COLOURED DRAWINGS, EXECUTED ON WOOD, AND COPIED
FROM THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES.
SECOND EDITION,
REVISED AND MUCH ENLARGED.
LONDON:
J. CHURCHILL & SONS, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1870.
[All Rights reserved.}
B3 1
TO THE READER.
THE nature of the changes which occur in matter
that is alive has always excited great interest ;
it is a question which arrests the attention of all
educated persons, as well as of those who make the
pursuit and advancement of natural science their life
work.
The enquiry is necessarily brought under the
attention of every student of medicine, and it is
natural that physicians who have time and oppor-
tunity, should be led to investigate deeply some of
its ramifications. The minute structure and action
of the tissues and organs of living beings, in health
and disease, early attracted my notice. It is a study
which has had a rare charm for me from boyhood,
and for upwards of twenty years I have been dili-
gently engaged in original research as well as in
public teaching in this particular department of
science. Some of the observations I have made
are recorded in this work. I have avoided the use of
technical terms, and have tried to say what I have to
say in the simplest manner. To save lengthy descrip-
tions a few drawings of some of the specimens upon
vi TO THE READER,
which my observations were made have been added
with explanations of the points which these are in-
tended to illustrate.
My views upon the nature of vital actions are at
variance with the doctrines now generally entertained
and taught. I am therefore very desirous that those
interested in the subject should have in small com-
pass the general statement of the facts as they
appear to me. It is to be regretted that upon the
most elementary propositions connected with this
enquiry opinions are sadly conflicting, and many of
the facts and statements upon which they are based
and which are urged in their behalf are quite irrecon-
cileable with one another. It is therefore very dim-
cult for readers to form an impartial judgment. But I
trust it is not too much to ask that the observations
which have led me to the views I entertain, should be
brought under the notice of those who have not yet
subscribed to the doctrine that living things are mere
machines built up by physical forces only, and made
to act by force alone.
Intense energy and activity are displayed by
certain members of the new school in giving publicity
to their views ; they press them in many different
forms, and endeavour to enforce the acceptance of
the physical doctrine of life, and much besides which
it is supposed to include, with all the proverbial ardour
and authority of prophets. All this renders it very
desirable that every one who is engaged in actually
investigating a matter of such deep general interest,
TO THE READER. vii
should do his utmost to make the conclusions at
which he arrives intelligible, without affectation of
learning, without mystery, and without in any way
exaggerating the importance of what he may have
to communicate. For the public may reasonably
desire some calm statement of proved facts in a matter
of such importance. It should be the writer's en-
deavour to tell his story simply, so that those who
wish may learn, and to take pains to make the facts
as clear to other minds as they appear to his own,
without trying to amaze by calling in the aid of
startling similes and striking illustrations which but
too often divert the attention from the real matter
under consideration, and are calculated to distract
the mind and prejudice the judgment.
In this edition I have introduced a new section on
the Mind. The views now published in a connected
form for the first time, were put forth in my lectures
delivered by direction of the .Radcliffe Trustees, at
Oxford during the Michaelmas term of last year,
reported in the " Medical Times " and " Gazette," and
less systematically in my physiological lectures de-
livered at King's College, London, during the winter
sessions 1863 to 1869.
6 1 , Grosvenor Street ;
Christmas, 1869.
*#* The degree of amplifying power used is stated at
the foot of each figure in diameters, or linear measure.
x 500, means that the representation is 500 times longer
or wider, measured in one direction only, than the object
itself. If the object was i inch in length, the drawing
would extend over 500 inches, or would be 41 feet 8 inches
long.
The diameter of any object can be ascertained by com-
parison with the scales at the foot of each plate.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I. PHYSICAL LIFE AND ITS BASIS.
PAGE
Introduction ... ... .., ... ... ... ... ... I
Professor Owen's New Views ... ... ... ... ... ... 5
Note on Ciliary Action ... ... ... ... ... ... 7
Mr. Grove on Experimental Organism ... ... ... ... 9
The term "Protoplasm" II
Huxley's " Endoplast" and "Periplastic Substance" 13
Protoplasm the Physical Basis of Life ... ... ... ... 16
Bathybius of Huxley ... 22
Dr. Wallich's Observations ... ... ... ... ... ... 24
Chemistry of Protoplasm ... ... ... ... ... ... 25
Properties of Matter ... ... ... ... .. ... ... 27
A quosity and Vitality ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28
Summary of the Things included under " Protoplasm" ... ... 29
II. GERMINAL, OR LIVING MATTER, AND
FORMED MATTER.
Nothing that Lives is Alive in every Part ... .. ... ... 33
Germinal Matter and Formed Material ... ... ... ... 35
The Terms Living and Formed Matter and Pabulum ... ... 37
General Characters of Germinal Matter ... ... ... ... 38
Amoeba... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 39
On Vital Movements 40
Mucus Corpuscle ... . 42
Of New Centres — Nuclei and Nucleoli 45
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Of the Production of formed Material ... ... ... ... 49
Of the So-called Intercellular Substance ... ... 52
Of the Formation of the Contractile Tissue of Muscle ... ... 54
The Formation of Nerve Fibres ... ,.. ... 55
What is Essential to the Cell 55
Cells are not like Bricks in a Wall ... ... ... ... ... 56
On the Nutrition of a Living Cell .. ... ... ... ... 57
Of the Increase of Cells ... 58
Of the Changes of the Cell in Disease ... ... ... ... 59
Effects of Treatment ... ... ... ... ••«... ... ... 64
III. OF LIFE.
What is to be understood by the term ? ... ... ... ... 61
Non-living Particles of Matter contrasted with Living Particles ... 69
Spontaneous Generation ... ... ... ... ... ... 73
Structure of a Spore of Mildew ... ... ... ... ... 75
Is a Tissue " Living" because attached to a Living Organism ... 79
Chemical and Mechanical Changes in Living Beings ... ... 79
Actions in Living Beings ... ... ... ... ... ... 82
Force guided by Matter ... ... ... ... ... ... 83
Actions which characterize every kind of Living Matter, but which never
occur in any Form of Non-living Matter.
New Views concerning the Vital Processes of Growth and Nu-
trition ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 87
Germinal Matter and Formed Material of the Blood ... ... 96
Nature of the Material which Nourishes the Tissues ... ... 98
Peculiarity of the Nutritive Process... 101
Of Vitality.
Vitality not a Property of Matter ... ... ... ... ... 103
Point at which the Physical School tries to stop further Enquiry ... 107
Of a Living Spherule ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 109
Centrifugal Movement of Living Particles ... ... ... ...in
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
New Centres not formed by aggregation ... ... ... ...112
Alteration in Vital Power ... ... ... ... ... ... 113
Increased Action ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 114
Hypothesis of Vital Force ... ... ... ... ... ... 116
General Survey of the Phenomena of Living Beings ... ... 118
IV. OF MIND.
Of Nerve Action in general ... ... ... ... ... ... 123
Of the Nerve Current 126
Different kinds of Nerve Force ... ... ... ... ... 127
Of the Structure of Nerve Apparatus ... ... ... ... 129
Of Mental Ntrvoiis Action.
Of the Mechanism and its Formation ... ... ... ... 130
Are Mental Nervous Actions of the Nature of Reflex Actions ? ... 133
The Brain is not a Gland ... ... ... ... ... ... 136
Of Mind as a Function of the Brain ... ... ... ... ... 136
Of Mental as compared with Mechanical Action ... ... ... 140.
Of Thought as a Result of Chemical Action... ... ... ... 142
Is the Brain to be looked upon as a Voltaic Battery ? ... ... 143
On Expressing Thoughts ... ... ... ... ... ... 145
Of the Living Matter concerned in Mental Action.
Of the Germinal Matter taking part in Mental Operations ... ... 149
Difference between this and other kinds of Germinal Matter ... 150
Of the Order in which different kinds of Germinal Matter are
affected in Disease... ... ... ... ... ... ... 151
Origin of Germinal Matter ... ... ... ... ... ... 153
New Powers acquired in Development ... ... ... ... 154
Effects of Exercise ... ... ... ... ... 155
Of the Nature of Will, and of the Life of Germinal Matter taking
part in Mental Operations ... ... ... ... ... 156
GERMINAL OH LIVING MATTER AND FORMED MATERIAL OF COMMON
MILDEW.
In this drawing the germinal or living matter of mildew duiing growth is represented. The figures
have been copied from specimens well stained by immersion in carmine fluid, a, spores protected
by a thick layer of formed material. 6, smallest particles of germinal or living matter within ; any
one of these minute particles might grow, c, a spore bursting ; germinal matter escaping, d, a spore
enlarged by growth, e, a spore sprouting. /, an old spore, the formed material of which has b<-en
much thickened by the formation of new layers within. The remaining figures show the growth of
the long filaments (mycelium) and the fructification of the fungus. It will be noticed that in all
these changes the germinal matter only takes part. The formed material is perfectly passive, and
does not GROW. Magnified 17CO diameters.
lOOCth of an inch
PHYSICAL LIFE AND ITS
BASIS.
[HE opinion that life is a form or mode of energy
or motion has for many years past been gaining
an increased number of advocates, and now ap-
pears to be very generally entertained and taught by
scientific men. The idea that life is a power, force, or
property of a special and peculiar kind, temporarily influ-
encing matter and its ordinary forces, but entirely different
from, and in no way correlated with any of these, has been
ridiculed, and is often spoken of as if it were too absurd to
require refutation. And yet it is doubtful if any one who
has carefully studied the matter is fully satisfied as to the
accuracy of the facts, and the cogency of the arguments
advanced in favour of the physical doctrine of life. The
very positive affirmations made by some authorities, un-
supported as they are by well-demonstrated facts, almost
suggest to the reader a suspicion whether after all, the
writer himself believes the doctrine to which he has com-
mitted himself, and which he has determined to advocate
with all the force of his authority, and to the very utmost
of his power, to be really true.
It may be that facts recently discovered strongly support
PROTOPLASM.
this now popular notion : it may be that the tendency of
modern research is, as has been said, indubitably and
strongly in this direction, — but some of us cannot feel satis-
fied that this is really so. Surely it is not too much to ask
that the exact way should be pointed out in which new
facts afford support to the doctrine, and that we should be
furnished with something more definite to guide our reason
than what is called the " tendency" of investigation, of
thought, or opinion; for this " tendency," when carefully
analyzed, will sometimes be found to amount only to this,
that certain influential persons have determined that a par-
ticular opinion shall be widely taught, or a particular theory
agreed upon shall be expounded and diffused as widely and
as quickly as possible.
Disclaiming authority of every kind, the adherents of
the new school of opinion profess to influence others, and to
be influenced themselves, by reason alone. But by urging
" the tendency of investigation" and "the spirit of modern
thought" in favour of doctrines they cannot support by evi-
dence, they appeal to the shadow of an authority which they
affect to despise. Every student has undoubted right to
require that scientific doctrines, which he is asked and
expected to accept as true, should be supported by facts
rather than by the authority of tendencies and prophecies.
In favour of regarding living beings as mere machines built
by force alone, maintained and preserved by force, and even
created by force, it is true, very positive statements have
been made ; but these have been, for the most part, sup-
ported by arguments more ingenious than conclusive. I for
one am ready to accept these views, no matter what change
OF DEAD AND LIVING.
in opinions, beliefs, or hopes that acceptance may involve,
provided only they are shown to rest upon facts of obser-
vation and experiment. But should mere authority alone
induce any conscientious, thoughtful man, who has devoted
himself to the study of nature, to believe and confess that
a living, moving, growing thing is but a force-created, force-
impelled machine? When we watch the lowest forms of
living matter under high magnifying powers, do we learn
anything to justify us in accepting such a view ? When we
ask our confident teachers of the new philosophy to assist
us, we get dogmatic assertions, but nothing by way of
explanation. Grand words are freely used, but the terms
employed are not denned. It is, however, true enough,
that men eminent among philosophers, as well as some
of the most distinguished living physicists, chemists, and
naturalists, have accepted this physical theory of life. They
have taught that life is but a mode of ordinary force, and
that the living thing differs from the non-living thing, not
in quality, or essence, or kind, but merely in degree.
They do not attempt to explain the difference between a
living thing and the same thing dead. They would perhaps
tell us that living and dead are only relative terms ; that
there is no absolute difference between the dead and living
states ; and that the thing which we call dead, is, after all,
only a few degrees less actively living than the thing we say
is alive. But is this sort of reasoning convincing, seeing
that although matter in the living state may suddenly pass
into the dead state, this same matter can never pass back
again into the living condition ? Those who advocate this
doctrine do not believe in the annihilation of force, when
B 2
PROTOPLASM.
a living thing suddenly passes from the living into the
dead state ; but yet they do not demonstrate the new form
or mode which the departing life-energy assumes, or explain
to us what in their opinion becomes of it. If the dead
thing only differs from the living thing by a few degrees of
heat or units of force, why can we not, by supplying more
heat or force, prevent dissolution, or cause the actions to
go on again after they have once stopped ?
In fact this view has been supported by assertions
instead of by facts, and of the arguments hitherto advanced
in its favour by its most powerful advocates, all are incon-
clusive, and some quite unjustifiable. He who chooses may
accept upon faith as an article of belief the dogma that all
the actions of living beings are due to ordinary forces only •
but it is absurd to put forward such a conclusion as if it
had been proved, or as if it were in the existing state of
knowledge capable of proof. So long as the advocates of
the physical doctrine of life contented themselves with
ridiculing " vitality" as a fiction and a myth, because it could
not be made evident to the senses, measured or weighed,
or proved scientifically to exist, their position was not easily
assailed ; but now when they assert dogmatically that vital
force is only a form or mode of ordinary motion, they are
bound to show that the assertion rests upon evidence, or it
will be regarded by thoughtful men as one of a large num-
ber of fanciful hypotheses, advocated only by those who
desire to swell the ranks of the teachers and expounders
of dogmatic science, which, although pretentious and autho-
ritative, must ever be intolerant and unprogressive.
LIPE OF A MAGNET.
PROFESSOR OWEN'S NEW VIEWS.
T)ROFESSOR OWEN has lately avowed his belief in
-L the doctrine that the so-called vital forces are really
ordinary physical forces. Unlike many advocates, however,
he admits that " on one or two points " proof is wanting.
But Owen goes much farther than the most advanced micro-
scopical observers and scientific investigators. He main-
tains that the formation of living beings out of inanimate
matter, by the conversion of physical and chemical into
vital modes of force, is going on daily and hourly ! The
evidence he has adduced in favour of this strange view, it
need scarcely be said, is scanty, uncertain, and uncon-
vincing ; while a mass of facts and arguments which have
been adduced in favour of the opposite conclusion, that
every particle of living matter comes from a pre-existing particle,
has been unconsciously neglected or purposely ignored.
It is very significant that so great a master is unable to
suggest a better instance of the analogy which he affirms
exists between physical and vital actions than is afforded
by magnetism. He says that there is nothing peculiar to
living things in their power of selecting certain constituents,
because a magnet selects also. Let the reader consider
how different is the process called selection in these two
cases. A magnet, says Owen, attracts towards it only
certain kinds (a certain kind ?) of matter. Is there, then,
no difference between selection and attraction •? Nor, he
further observes, is death characteristic of things living
PROTOPLASM
only; for if the steel be unmagnetized, is it not " dead?"
Devitalize the sarcode (living amoeba), unmagnetize the
steel, and both cease to manifest their respective vital or
magnetic phenomena. In that respect both are " defunct."
" Only," remarks the same authority, " the steel resists
much longer the surrounding decomposing agencies ;" and
I would add, but this Owen would regard as a matter of
the utmost indifference, you can unmagnetize and remag-
netize the magnet as often as you like, but you can only
kill the amoeba once, and you can never revitalize it.
In answer to my objections to some of his statements,
Professor Owen observes that " there are organisms (Vibrio
Rotifer, Macrobiotus, &c.) which we can devitalize and
revitalize — devive and revive — many times."* That such
organisms can be revived, all will admit, but probably Pro-
fessor Owen will be alone in not recognizing any distinction
between the words revitalizing and reviving. The animal-
cule that can be revived has never been dead, but that
which is not dead cannot be revitalized. The difference
between the living state and the dead state is absolute, for
that which has once lost its life can never regain it. The
half-drowned man that can be revived has never been dead.
If Owen regards the (apparently) dried animalcule as
being " as completely lifeless as is the drowned man whose
breath and heat have gone, and whose blood has ceased to
circulate," he will not find many to agree with him ; for
will not a drop of water resuscitate or revive the one, but
who shall revitalize the other ?
* "The Monthly Microscopical Journal," No. V, May I, 1869,
p. 294.
C I LIAR Y A CTION.
NOTE ON CILIARY ACTION.
In the case of ciliary action we have an example of a movement
which, though not strictly a vital movement, like that of the amoeba
(see p. 39), is really dependent upon changes which are a direct result
of vital phenomena. The cilium itself is not composed of living matter,
but its base is certainly in very intimate relation with matter that is
alive. The latter may indeed be actually prolonged into the base of
the cilium. The vibratile movement is probably due to an alteration
taking place in the tension of the fluid which pervades the tissue,
induced by the action of the living matter of the cell. The rate of
vibration varying according to the rapidity with which the living matter
of the cell absorbs nutrient substances, and undergoes conversion into
formed matter, or in other words, the rapidity with which the formation
of new living matter and the death of the old particles takes place.
When ciliary action ceases, we cannot, I think, say that each individual
cilium dies, for after all action has ceased a little alkaline fluid will
cause the cilium to vibrate again actively. We must not, therefore,
infer that the dying cilium has been revived or the dead cilium
revitalized by. the liquor potassse, for the fact seems rather to point to
the conclusion that the action of the cilium which occurs during life
is due to physical changes, and is not a vital action.
My friend, Dr. Rutherford, has suggested that the fact of the
cessation of movement at the base of the cilium, while the thin part
still continues to vibrate, might be advanced as an argument against
the views advocated by me in the following pages, and if the cilium
itself were composed of living matter, like the body of an amoeba,
such an objection would undoubtedly hold : but if, on the other
hand, the movement is physical, due to alterations in the currents
of fluid through the cell, we should expect that it would continue
longer at the apex than at the base, for the simple reason that
an impulse which would be sufficient to make the thin free part vibrate
freely would be insufficient to move the thicker portion attached to
the cell. We cannot say that the cilium dies from base to apex,
for the whole vibratile appendage is as destitute of life while it is yet
vibrating actively, as after it has ceased to move, and if we could only
make fluid flow through the cell after its death interruptedly in the same
8 PROTOPLASM.
direction, and with the same force as it is made to flow during life by
the action of the living matter, ciliary movement would continue,
although the living matter of the cell was actually dead. It is most
important to distinguish between vital movements occurring in living
matter, and mechanical movements which result from alterations in
tension, the flow of currents, &c., consequent upon changes effected by
living matter.
EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM.
MR. GROVE ON EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM.
MR. GROVE has recently* affirmed that "in a voltaic
battery and its effects" we have "the nearest ap-
proach man has made to experimental organism :" but surely
it should be shown in what particulars a voltaic battery
resembles an organism. All organisms come from pre-
existing organisms, and all their tissues and organs are formed
from or by a little clear, transparent, structureless, moving
matter which came from matter like itself, but may increase
by appropriating to itself matter having none of its properties
or powers. Now, voltaic batteries do not grow or multiply,
nor do they evolve themselves out of structureless material,
nor, if you give them ever so much pabulum in the shape of
the constituents of which they are made, do they appro-
priate this. Where too is the chemist who gives what is to
be selected ? What then does Mr. Grove mean by asserting
that a voltaic battery is the nearest approach man has made
to experimental organism ? Has man yet made the slightest
approach to experimental organism ? If any apparatus we
could contrive developed all possible modes of force —
motion, heat/ light, electricity, magnetism, chemical action,
and any number of others yet to be discovered — that
apparatus would still present no approach whatever to any
organism known. Of course such a thing might he called
an organism, just as a watch, or water, or a gas, or an
elementary substance may be called a creature, or a worm
* "British Medical Journal," May 29, 1869, p. 486.
10 PROTOPLASM.
a machine ; but everything that lives — every so-called living
machine — grows of itself, builds itself up, and multiplies,
while every non-living machine is made, does not grow, and
does not produce machines like itself. Mr. Grove further says
that in the human body we have chemical action, electricity,
magnetism, heat, light, motion, and possibly other forces
" contributing in the most complex manner to sustain that
result of combined action which we call life." Here it
seems to be affirmed that forces sustain the result of their
own combined action, but surely this is only asserting that
these forces sustain themselves. Heat, light, electricity, etc.,
sustain the result of the combined action of heat, light,
electricity. It is moreover said that what we call life is the
result of the combined action of motion, heat, light, elec-
tricity, etc., which are but different forms or modes of one
force. But as everybody knows we may have any and all
modes of force without life. Life, therefore, involves some-.
thing besides force, or is something different from it.
Those who teach that life is the sum of all the actions going on in a
living body, forget that these actions are not all of the same kind. Of
some we know very much, but of the nature of others we know nothing.
In every living thing there are physico-chemical actions, which also occur
out of the body, and vital actions. These last are peculiar to living
beings, and cannot be imitated. In galvanic batteries, and in other
arrangements made by man, we may have physico-chemical actions, but
never anything at all like vital actions. Of course, authority may
decree that henceforth the terms " living galvanic battery" "vital
machine" " animated steam engine" shall be employed, and that a man
shall be called a "physico-chemical apparatus" or a " kynetic" or
"electric machine" but the nature of the things themselves could not be
changed in the least degree by authority, however much the names by
which they were known were altered.
PROTOPLASM.
PROTOPLASM.
The term "Protoplasm" is now applied to several dif-
ferent kinds of matter, — to substances differing from one
another in the most essential particulars. It seems, there-
fore, very desirable that its meaning should be accurately
denned by those who employ it, or that it should be super-
seded by other words. If certain authorities were asked
to define exactly the characters of the matter which they
called protoplasm, we should have from those authors defi-
nitions applying to things essentially different from one
another. Hard and soft, solid and liquid, coloured and
colourless, opaque and transparent, granular and destitute
of granules, structureless and having structure, moving and
incapable of movement, active and passive, contractile and
non-contractile, growing and incapable of growth, changing
and incapable of change, animate and inanimate, alive and
dead, — are some of the opposite qualities possessed by
different kinds of matter which have nevertheless been
called protoplasm.
A definition of protoplasm, most probably written by
the late Professor Henfrey in " Griffith and Henfrey's
Micrographic Dictionary," is as follows : — " Protoplasm. —
The name applied by Mohl to the colourless or yellowish,
smooth or granular viscid substance, of nitrogenous con-
stitution, which constitutes the formative substance in the
contents of vegetable cells, in the condition of gelatinous
strata, reticulated threads and nuclear aggregations, &c.
It is the same substance as that formerly termed by the
! 2 PROTOPLASM.
Germans ' schleim,' which was usually translated in English
works by * mucus' or ' mucilage.' " The surface of this
mass constituted the " formative protoplasmic layer" which
was supposed to take part in the formation of the cellulose
wall of the vegetable cell. This was regarded by Von Mohl
as a structure of special importance distinct from the
cell contents, and it was named by him, in 1844, the
" primordial utricle."
In cases where protoplasm appears as a simple trans-
parent homogeneous substance, several layers have been
described, and it has been supposed that these different
layers are concerned in different operations. This view has
been extended to many forms of protoplasm, and the
movements which occur have been attributed to the pre-
sence of two or more layers differing in density.
Clear, homogeneous protoplasm, it has been said, under-
goes vacuolation, and becomes honeycombed, the spaces
being rilled with watery matter. In some instances, this
change proceeds until mere protoplasmic threads are seen
stretched across the cavity. The transparent fluid material
occupying the spaces and the intervals between the threads
supposed to be the less important matter, and yet it is
the living, growing, and moving substance ; while the
threads and walls of the spaces are composed of matter
which has ceased to manifest these properties — matter
which no longer lives, and which has been formed from the
living matter. But we may fairly ask if this lifeless, passive,
formed matter, which cannot move or grow or multiply of
itself, which is but a product of the death of protoplasm,
is nevertheless to be called by the same name as the living,
ENDOPLAST AND PERI PL AST. 13
moving substance which it once was ? If this be so, there
ought to be no recognizable difference between matter
which is actually alive and the substances which result from
its death.
So far, then, we have seen that the term protoplasm has
been applied to the matter within the primordial utricle of
the vegetable cell, to that clear substance which undergoes
vacuolation and fibrillation, and to the matter forming the
walls of the vacuoles and the threads or fibrillae. Still more
recently, Von Mohl's primordial utricle has been called proto-
plasm by Professor Huxley, who some years before restricted
the term to the matter within the primordial utricle, which
matter at that time he regarded as an "accidental anatomi-
cal modification" of the endoplast, and of little importance.*
The nucleus, and with it the protoplasm, Mr. Huxley
thought, exerted no peculiar office, and possessed no meta-
bolic power. Now, however, he considers " protoplasm" of
the first importance; and under this term includes, I
imagine, not only the primordial utricle and the " accidental
anatomical modifications " it encloses, but the fully-formed
cellulose wall of the vegetable cell. His "endoplast" and
"periplastic substance" of 1853 together constitute his
"protoplasm" of 1869. The old views are modified, and
although the results of researches made during the last few
years are scarcely alluded to, the writer evidently has felt
that certain changes must be made. So the vacuoles of his
periplastic substance become silently tenanted by simple or
nucleated protoplasms endowed with " subtle influences"
which our author may yet admit to have existed before his
* "The Cell Theory," " Med. Chir. Rev.," October, 1853.
I4 PROTOPLASM.
periplastic substance was formed. Next he may discover
that the endoplast is of the highest importance instead of
no importance at all, and then there is an easy step to the
doctrine that the periplastic substance is formed by and from
the protoplasm which has properties and "subtle influences''' of
a remarkable kind, but is not endowed with the absurd fiction
of vitality.
Max Schultze included under the head of protoplasm
the active moving matter forming the sarcode of the Rhizo-
pods as well as the substance circulating in the cells of
vallisneria, the hairs of the nettle, and other vegetable cells ;
and now it is generally admitted that the active, moving
matter constituting the white blood-corpuscle, the mucus
and pus corpuscle, and other contractile bodies widely dis-
tributed, is essentially of the same nature. The move-
ments characteristic of this matter have been attributed to
an inherent property of contractility ; and this property
has been held by some to be characteristic of, and peculiar
to, protoplasm. Kiihne considers all contractile material
to be protoplasm, and includes the different forms of
muscular tissue in the same category as the matter of the
amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, &c. But if we apply the
term protoplasm to the contracting muscular tissue which
exhibits structure, as well as to the living moving matter of
the amoeba, &c., in which no structure at all can be made
out, it is obvious that these must be regarded as essentially
different kinds of protoplasm, 'because they differ in proper-
ties which are essential and of the first importance. The
contractile movement of the amoeba, white blood-cor-
puscle, &c., is a phenomenon very different from the con-
KINDS OF PROTOPLASM.
traction of muscular tissue. In the first, movements occur
in every direction, while the last is characterized by a repe-
tition of movement in two definite directions only. And
when we come to study the matter which is the seat of these
two kinds of movements respectively, we find very im-
portant differences. The matter of the amoeba, white
blood-corpuscle, &c., grows. It takes up matter unlike itself,
and communicates to it its own properties. Now, muscular
tissue does not do this. In short, the first kind of matter
acts and moves of itself; but the last can only be acted
upon and made to move. The first may be compared with a
spring, as yet undiscovered, which not only winds itself up
and uncoils, but every part of which moves in any direc-
tion, and can make new springs out of matter which has
none of the properties of a spring j the last with a spring
which can only uncoil itself after it has been wound up.
Further, the term protoplasm has not been applied only
to the matter of which the amoeba, the sarcode of the fora-
aninifera, &c., is composed, and that which constitutes the
^white blood-corpuscle and such bodies, but the matter
which is gradually assuming the form of tissue has been
considered to be of the same nature. The radiating fibres
of the caudate nerve-cells of the spinal cord have been
termed protoplasm fibres, and the outer part of the nerve-
cell with which they are continuous is composed of the
same substance. The axis cylinder of the dark-bordered
nerve-fibres and the fine ultimate nerve-fibres in peripheral
parts have been looked upon as a form of protoplasm ; but
it is hardly necessary to remark that, whatever may be the
nature of the material of which nerve-fibres and the outer
part of nerve-cells are composed4 it possesses properties
PROTOPLASM.
very different from those manifested by the amoeba, white
blood-corpuscle, etc., and is destitute of the powers which
characterize the matter constituting these bodies. Here
again we find the term protoplasm applied to different kinds
of matter or to matter in very different states.
But unfortunately we have by no means exhausted the
confusion which has resulted with regard to protoplasm, for
the name has been applied also to the outer, hard, dead
part of epithelial cells and by implication to all correspond-
ing structures.
Protoplasm the Physical Basis of Life. — In order to
convince people that the actions of living beings are not
due to any mysterious vitality or vital force or power, but
are in fact physical and chemical in their nature, Prof. Huxley
gives to matter which is alive, to matter which is dead, and to
matter which is completely changed by roasting or boiling,
the very same name. The matter of sheep and mutton and
man and lobster and egg is the same, and, according to
Huxley, one may be transubstantiated into the other. But
how ? By " subtle influences," and " under sundry circum-
stances," answers this authority. And all these things alive,
or dead, or roasted, he tells us are made of protoplasm, and
this protoplasm is the physical basis of life, or the basis of
physical life* But can the discoverer of "subtle influences"
afford to sneer at the fiction of vitality ? By calling things
which differ from one another in many qualities by the same
name, Huxley seems to think he can annihilate distinctions,
enforce identity, and sweep away the difficulties which
have impeded the progress of previous philosophers in
* The iron basis of the candle, and the basis of the iron candle are
expressions evidently interchangeable.
PHYSICAL BASIS GF LIFE.
their search after unity. Plants and worms and men are
all protoplasm, and protoplasm is albuminous matter, and
albuminous matter consists of four elements, and these four
elements possess certain properties, by which properties all
differences between plants and worms and men are to be
accounted for. Although Huxley would probably admit
that a worm was not a man, he would tell us that by " subtle
influences" the one thing might be easily converted into the
other, and not by such nonsensical fictions as "vitality,"
which can neither be weighed, measured, nor conceived.*
* But this is not the first time Mr. Huxley has indulged in adroit
word-tricks and inapposite illustrations. After referring to the
anatomy of the horse, he says, in his "Lectures to Working Men,"
page II : "Hitherto we have, as it were, been looking at a steam-
engine with the fires out, and nothing in the boiler • ( ! ) but the body of
the living animal is a beautifully-formed machine" And it would be
easy to point out in many of his writings, vague remarks of the same
sort with similes, calculated rather to mislead than to assist the judgment
of students. Take, for example, his far-fetched observations in the first
number of the "Academy," page 13, about the kitchen clock, which
cries "cuckoo," and shows the phases of the moon, and the death-
watch machine, "a learned and intelligent student of its works," ticking
like the clock in the clock case. We are told to "substitute 'cosmic
vapour ' for ' clock, ' and ' molecules ' for ' works, ' and the application
of the argument is obvious." (!) The argument relates to the "forces
possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the
universe was composed," by the mutual interaction of which forces the
whole world living and not living has resulted. " If this be true" (doubt-
fully suggests the Professor) " it is no less certain that the existing world
lay, potientially, in the cosmic vapour ; and that a sufficient intelligence
could, from a knowledge of the properties of the molecules of that
vapour, have predicted, say the state of the Fauna of Britain in 1869,
with as much certainty as one can say what will happen to the vapour
of the breath in a cold winter's day.". (!) These remarks are printed
under the heading "SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY."
C
ri8 PROTOPLASM.
Some among those who work at and think over these
matters doubt if many of Prof. Huxley's assertions are at all
justified by his facts, and many are unable to accept argu-
ments which by him seem to have been considered quite
conclusive. I shall therefore venture to draw attention to
some of the views he has recently expressed in his paper,
" On the Physical Basis of Life," published in the " Fort-
nightly Review", February ist, 1869.
Up to this time all observers have agreed in opinion
that the cell or elementary part of the fully-formed organism
consists of different kinds of matter, and it has been sup-
posed that distinct offices were performed by some of these.
They have been variously named. Cell-wall, cell-contents,
nucleus, nucleolus, periplast, endoplast, primordial utricle,
protoplasm, living matter and formed matter, are not all the
terms that have been proposed. I think Professor Huxley
is the first observer who has spoken of the cell in its
entirety as a mass of protoplasm, and the only one who has
ever asserted that any tissue in nature is composed through-
out of matter which can properly be regarded as one in
kind. This view is quite incompatible with many facts,
some of which have been alluded to by Mr. Huxley him-
self.* I doubt if in the whole range of modem science it
would be possible to find an assertion more at variance
with facts familiar to physiologists than the statement that
" beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and
* "The original endoplast of the embryo cell," Huxley says, in
1853, "has grown and divided into all the endoplasts of the adult," and
"the original periplast has grown at a corresponding rate, and has
formed one continuous and connected envelope from the very first."
HUXLETS PROTOPLASM.
polype," are composed of " masses of protoplasm with a
nucleus," unless it be that still more extravagant assertion
that what is ordinarily termed a cell or elementary part is
a mass of protoplasm ; — for can anything be more unlike
the semi-fluid, active, moving matter of amoeba protoplasm,
than the hard, dry, passive, external part of a cuticular cell
or of an elementary part of bone ?
I cannot forbear quoting in this place the following
passage, which certainly requires explanation. After stating
that the substance of a colourless blood-corpuscle is an
active mass of protoplasm, Mr. Huxley remarks that " iinder
sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies (!) and becomes
distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen
a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or
less hidden in the living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus.
Corpuscles of essentially similar structure are to be found
in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, and scattered through
the whole framework of the body" Now, what can be
meant by a white blood-corpuscle dying and becoming dis-
tended into a round mass under sundry circumstances?
Mr. Huxley goes on to say that at an early period of deve-
lopment the organism is " nothing but an aggregation of
such corpuscles," that is, of corpuscles (elementary parts
or cells) like those " found in the skin, in the lining of
the mouth, and scattered through the whole framework of
the body." This assertion is incorrect, inasmuch as the
corpuscles in the embryo consist almost entirely of (living)
matter like the white blood-corpuscle, while those of which
the skin (cuticle) and most of the tissues of the adult are
composed consist principally of formed matter with a very
c 2 *
20 PROTOPLASM.
little of the other (living) matter, and the oldest particles of
cuticle are entirely composed of hard formed matter. Here, as
in other cases referred to by Huxley, no distinction is drawn
between that which is living, growing, and forming; and that
which has been formed and is destitute of all powers of life and
growth. No distinction between living matter and lifeless
matter ! Both are confused together under the term "pro-
toplasm," for which might be substituted "organic matter"
or " albuminous matter." Huxley terms the particles of
epithelium of the cuticle and of mucous membranes, masses
of protoplasm. He says beasts and fowls, reptiles and
fishes, are all composed of structural units of the same
character. Now, this mass of protoplasm, this unit, con-
sists partly of lifeless and partly of living matter. The outer
part, which may be dry and hard, and is lifeless, may be
undergoing disintegration, and is perhaps being taken up
by other living organisms, but is nevertheless, according to
this view, just as much protoplasm as the living, growing,
moving matter itself. It does not signify how many dif-
ferent things may be comprised in the cell or elementary
part, in what essentially different states these things may
be, how different parts may differ in properties — they
constitute protoplasm. A muscle is protoplasm ; nerve is
protoplasm ; bone, hair, and shell are protoplasm ; a lirnb is
protoplasm; the whole body is protoplasm, and of course
bone, hair, shell, etc., are as much "the physical basis of
life" as albuminous matter and roast mutton. But surely
it would be less incorrect to speak of such "protoplasms"
as the physical basis of death or the physical basis of roast,
than to call dead and roasted matter the physical basis of
WHA T IS PRO TOPLASM ? 2 1
life. No anatomical investigation is necessary to enable us
to detect this substance. Every beast, fowl, reptile, worm,
or polyp that we see is protoplasm. Everything that lives
or has lived is protoplasm, variously modified.*
Mr. Huxley seems to maintain that protoplasm may be
killed and dried, roasted and boiled, or otherwise altered,
and yet remain protoplasm ; but his " protoplasm" is after all
only albuminoid or protein matter. t Huxley says lobster-
protoplasm may be converted into human protoplasm, and
the latter again turned into living lobster. But the statement
is incorrect; because, in the process of assimilation "pro-
toplasm" is entirely disintegrated, and is not converted into
the new tissue in the form of protoplasm at all ; and he
must permit me to remark that sheep cannot be transub-
stantiated into man, even by " subtle influences," nor can
dead protoplasm be converted into living protoplasm, or a
dead sheep into a living man. And what is gained by calling
the matter of dead roast mutton and of a living growing sheep
by the same name ? If the last is the physical basis of life one
does not see how the first can be so too, unless roast mutton
and living sheep are identical ; but surely Mr. Huxley does
not really mean to assert this.
It is remarkable that Huxley himself, some sixteen years
* The term "variously modified" perhaps includes the terms
living and dead} and, according to Mr. Huxley, expresses with sufficient
exactness the difference between the living and dead states.
+ Mr. Huxley says, "all protoplasm is proteinaceous ; or, as the
white or albumen of an egg is one of the commonest examples of a
nearly pure protein matter, we may say that all living matter is more or
less albuminoid." If the white of an egg is living matter, why not its
shell ?
22 PROTOPLASM.
ago, drew a distinction between living and non-living matter,
which he now, without any explanation, utterly ignores.
He remarked that the stone, the gas, the crystal, had an
inertia, and tended to remain as they were unless some ex-
ternal influence affected them ; but that living things were
characterized by the very opposite tendencies. He referred
also to " the faculty of pursuing their own course" and the
" inherent law of change in living beings." In 1853, the
same authority actually found fault with those who at-
tempted to reduce life to " mere attractions and repulsions,"
and considered physiology " simply as a complex branch of
mere physics." He also remarked that "vitality is a pro-
perty inherent in certain kinds of matter."
Bathybius. — I will now draw attention to a fanciful form
of marine protoplasm, supposed to be very widely extended
at great depths, which has been much discussed of late, and
concerning the nature of which much difference of opinion
is entertained. From the protoplasm of the amoeba and
certain forms of foraminifera. we pass, it is said, to larger
and more extended sheets of this substance, included under
the head of " urschleim," and constituting the organisms of
the simplest animated beings, which have been included
by Haeckel in the genus Moner. It would be wrong to omit
all mention of this subject, as it is very interesting and of
great importance, although I have not given much attention
to it. I shall therefore quote the observations of others so
far as they appear to me to bear upon the consideration
of the nature of protoplasm.
In the "Microscopical Journal" for October, 1868, is a
BATHYBIUS. 23
memoir by Professor Huxley, " On some Organisms living
at great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean," in which he
states that the stickiness of the deep-sea mud is due to
" innumerable lumps of a transparent gelatinous substance,"
each lump consisting of granules, coccoliths, and foreign
bodies, embedded in a " transparent, colourless, and struc-
tureless matrix." The granules form heaps which are some-
times the To-Votn of an inch or more in diameter. The
"granule" is a rounded or oval disc, which is stained
yellow by iodine, and is dissolved by acetic acid. " The
granule heaps and the transparent gelatinous matter in
which they are embedded represent masses of protoplasm."
One of the masses of this deep-sea "urschleim" may be
regarded as a new form of the simplest animated beings
(Moner), and Huxley proposes to call it Bathybius* The
" Discolithi and the Cyatholithi" some of which resemble
the " granules," are said to bear the same relation to the
protoplasm of Bathybius as the spicula of sponges do to the
soft parts of those animals ; but it must be borne in mind
that the spicula of sponges are imbedded in a matrix, which is
formed by and contains, besides the spicula, small masses of
living or germinal matter, which have been ignored, although
the matrix is produced and the form of the spicula deter-
* The idea of the existence of huge continuous masses of living
matter of enormous extent, is most fanciful and improbable. It appears
to be opposed to well ascertained facts. So far from living matter growing
to form very large collections, it divides in almost all known instances
before it reaches the diameter even of 3^ of an inch. I think that the
phenomena essential to living matter are only possible in minute masses
separated from one another, so that each may be supplied with nutrient
materials. See "Of Life," p. 67.
24 PROTOPLASM.
mined by them. As in other cases, this matrix, with the
living matter included, constitutes " protoplasm."
Bathybius has been fancifully described as " a vast sheet
of living matter (!) enveloping the whole earth beneath the
seas," composed of molecules whose organizing tendencies
will be shown after the lapse of several thousand years in
the Fauna and Flora of the period of which the unscientific
cannot now form the remotest conception. But it is surely a
consoling thought, and one eminently calculated to confirm
our faith in the infallibility of the new philosophy, to re-
member the remarkable prophecy that the successful neo-
biologist is not only to render evident the wonderful proper-
ties now dormant in the existing Bathybius, but as soon as
he shall have succeeded in demonstrating to us the properties
of the molecules which once formed the primitive nebulosity,
he will be able to predict the exact state of the Fauna and
Flora of Middlesex in the year 5069, and with as much
certainty as he can now tell us what will happen if exactly
one thousand grains of proteid organic matter be exposed,
in an atmosphere of carbonic acid to a temperature of 25°
during the space of two hours.
Dr. Wallictts Observations. — Dr. Wallich has, it need
scarcely be said, arrived at a very different conclusion. In a
paper " On the Vital Functions of the Deep-sea Protozoa,"
published in No. I. of the " Monthly Microscopical Journal,"
January, 1869, this observer, who has long been engaged in
this and kindred studies, states that the coccoliths and cocco-
spheres stand in no direct relation to the protoplasm sub-
stance referred to by Huxley under the name of Bathybius.
The former are derived from their parent coccospheres,
DR. WALLICITS VIEWS. 25
which are independent structures altogether. " Bathybius"
instead of being a widely-extending sheet of living protoplasm
which grows at the expense of inorganic elements, is rather
to be regarded as a complex mass of slime with many
foreign bodies and the debris of living organisms which
have passed away. Numerous minute living forms are,
however, still found on it.
Dr. Wallich is of opinion that each coccosphere is just
as much an independent structure at Thalassicolla or Col-
lospJmra, and that, as in other cases, " nutrition is effected
by a vital act," which enables the organism to extract from
the surrounding medium the elements adapted for its nutri-
tion. These are at length converted into its sarcode and
shell material. In fact, in these lowest simplest forms, we
find evidence of the working of an inherent vital power, and
in them nutrition seems to be conducted upon the same
principles as in the highest and most complex beings. In
all cases the process involves, besides physical and chemical
changes, purely vital actions, which cannot be imitated, and
which cannot be explained by Physics and Chemistry.
Chemistry of Protoplasm. — From what has been said
already, it must be obvious that the chemistry of the
complex matter now termed protoplasm, embraces, i, the
chemistry of the formed matter, and 2, the chemistry of
the active, living, growing, matter, of an organism. By
chemical analysis we can ascertain the composition of the
first, and can learn many facts concerning its elementary
chemical characters; but it is obvious that chemistry can
teach us little with regard to the composition of the living
matter, for we kill it when we attempt to analyze it ; and
26 PROTOPLASM.
in truth we analyze not the living matter, but the sub-
stances resulting from its death. Of course any one may
say that the inanimate substances he obtains were the
actual things of which the living matter was composed,
but it is a mere assertion, for the bodies in question cannot
be detected in the matter while it is actually alive; and
when obtained they do not possess the properties or powers
characteristic of the living matter.* What, therefore, can be
gained by asserting that these things constitute living matter?
What is the use of trying to make people believe and con-
fess that there is no difference between a living thing and
the same thing dead, when it is clearly possible that there
may be the very greatest difference ?
And I must not omit to notice here a remark made by
Mr. Herbert Spencer, which illustrates the extraordinary
opinion entertained by him concerning the difference be-
tween living, growing, active, matter, and perfectly lifeless
matter. " On the other hand (he says) the microscope has
traced down organisms to simpler and simpler forms, until, in
the Protogenes of Professor Haeckel there has been reached
a type distinguishable from a fragment of albumen only by its
finely granular character""^ Mr. Herbert Spencer should
prepare a solution of albumen and a solution of " proto-
* " In the last place, Mr. Huxley's analysis is an analysis of dead
protoplasm, and indecisive, consequently, for that which lives. Mr.
Huxley betrays sensitiveness in advance of this objection ; for he seeks
to rise above the sensitiveness and the objection at once by styling the
latter 'frivolous.'" "As regards Protoplasm in relation to Professor
Huxley's Essay on the Physical Basis of Life," by J. H. Stirling,
LL.D., F.R.C.S. Edinburgh, Blackwood and Sons, October, 1869.
f "The Principles of Psychology," p. 137.
FORCE AND FORM. 27
genes," and by careful evaporation he might obtain two
extracts not distinguishable from one another. Both would
exhibit a " finely granular character," and thus the important
fact that there was no difference whatever between the
inanimate albumen and the inanimate " protogenes " would
be demonstrated. And as every one is now prepared to
admit that there is no difference between dead "proto-
genes" and living "protogenes," we must of course accept
the conclusion that the lowest forms of life are but forms of
albumen. In this way " the chasm between the inorganic
and the organic is being filled up ! "
"Properties" of Matter. — Here are some specimens
of the dogmatic assertions which have been advanced
in place of facts and arguments in favour of the physico-
chemical doctrines. "The difference between a crystal
of calcspar and amorphous carbonate of lime corre-
sponds to the difference between living matter and the
matter which results from its death. Just as by chemical
analysis we learn the composition of calc spar, so by
chemical analysis we ascertain the composition of living
matter. It is not probable that there is any real differ-
ence in the nature of the molecular forces which compel
the carbonate of lime to assume and retain the crystalline
form, and those which cause the albuminoid matter to move
and grow, select and form and maintain its particles in a
state of incessant motion. The property of crystallising is
to crystallisable matter what the vital property is to albu-
minoid matter (protoplasm). The crystalline form corre-
sponds to the organic form, and its internal structure to tissue
structure. Crystalline force being a property of matter,
28 PROTOPLASM.
vital force is but a property of matter." It might be objected
that crystalline force keeps particles still and compels them
to assume a constant form, while vital force prevents them
from assuming any definite form at all and keeps them
moving,—; -form being assumed only when the matter is with-
drawn from the influence of the vital force ; but these and
any other objections raised to the physical theory of life are
accounted absurd and frivolous. It has been asserted posi-
tively that there is but one true theory of life — the physical
theory. Its advocates seem to think that any objections
raised to this ought not to be listened to, because they
assert prophetically that by the rapid advance of molecular
physics, the truth of their theory will some day be fully
established.
Aquosity and Vitality. — The properties possessed by in-
organic compounds are supposed to be due in some way to
the properties of the elements of which they consist. Thus
it has been remarked that the properties of water result
from the properties of its constituent gases, and are not due
to " aquosity," as if any reasonable man would think of
referring the properties of water to such a " subtle in-
fluence" as " aquosity." It has been argued that since the
properties of water are due to its gases and not to aquosity,
the properties of protoplasm are due to its elements, Oxygen,
Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon, and not to vitality. But
the cases are by no means parallel. Of water there is but
one kind.* Of protoplasm there are kinds innumerable.
The constituent elements of the same particle of water may
* A hostile critic has discovered that there are at least two kinds,
dirty water and clean water !
VITAL PROPERTIES. 29
be separated and recombined again and again as many
times as we please; but the elements of protoplasm once
separated from one another, can never be combined again
to form any kind of protoplasm. But further, every kind of
protoplasm differs from every other kind most remarkably
in the results of its living, one producing man, another dog,
a third butterfly, a fourth amoeba, and so on. Now, what
can be more absurd than to suggest that the properties of
man, dog, butterfly, and amoeba are due not to vitality, but
to the constituent elements, or to the properties of the
molecules of their tissues ? Do the properties of the
elements of dog differ sufficiently from those of the ele-
ments of man, to account for the differences between
dog and man. Have we not rather reason to infer an
approximation towards identity of composition in the living
matter, with marvellous difference in the results of the vital
actions ? How, then, can the differences be due to the
ordinary properties of the elements ? Wonderful properties
have indeed to be discovered in connection with elements
before we can refer the differences in property of living
beings compounded of them to the properties of the ele-
ments themselves. The argument advanced against vitality,
as far as it rests upon the non-existence of aquosity, is
utterly worthless, and it is astonishing that any writer who
gave his readers credit for moderate intelligence should
have adduced it at all.
To sum up in few words. The term protoplasm has
been applied to the viscid nitrogenous substance within the
primordial utricle of the vegetable cell and to the threads
and filaments formed in this matter; to the primordial
30 PROTOPLASM.
utricle itself; to this and the substances which it encloses;
and to all these things, together with the cellulose wall ; to
the matter composing the sarcode of the foraminifera ; to
that which constitutes the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle,
and other naked masses of germinal matter ; to the matter
between the so-called nucleus and muscular tissue, and to
the contractile matter itself; to everything which exhibits
contractility ; to nerve-fibres, and to other structures pos-
sessing remarkable endowments ; to the soft matter within
an elementary part, as a cell of epithelium ; to the
hard external part of such a cell; to the entire epithelial
cell.
Inanimate albuminous matter has been regarded as
protoplasm. Living things have been spoken of as masses
of protoplasm ; the same things dead have been said to be
protoplasm. If the matter be boiled or roasted, it is still
protoplasm ; and there seems no reason why it should not
be dissolved, and yet retain its name protoplasm.
It is therefore very difficult to see whit advantage is to
be gained by the use of the word " protoplasm." If we call
a cell a protoplasm, and an egg a protoplasm, and a sheep a
protoplasm, and a man a protoplasm, we do not therefore
get a clearer idea of any one of them than we had before,
while on the other hand the words cell, egg, sheep, man, are
distinctive, short, and generally understood. There would
be terrible risk of very different living things being con-
founded, if they were all called " protoplasms."
Notwithstanding the clever and subtle arguments which
have been advanced in its favour, and repeated over and
over again in almost every possible form, the new doctrine
PROPERTIES OF LIVING BEINGS.
of life has exerted very little influence. It is absurd to
expect that thoughtful persons will be convinced that
vital phenonema are physical and chemical phenomena,
simply by an authoritative assertion that they are so ;
and no matter how energetically the doctrine may be
advocated, it will not be received unless it is proved to
be founded upon facts. In spite of all that has been said,
the chemist has taught us little concerning the nature of
the changes which take place when pabulum becomes
totally changed and converted into living matter, or when
the latter gives rise to some peculiar kind of formed matter.
He has shown us, it is true, that certain substances result-
ing in the organism during the disintegration of formed
matter may be prepared artificially in the laboratory • but
he knows as well as the physiologist, that their formation in
the organism is conducted upon totally different principles,
of the nature of which all are entirely ignorant. And it is
childish to attempt, as some have done, to hide our igno-
rance by referring the actions to subtle influences, cell-
laboratories, and molecular machinery, when every one
knows there is nothing like a laboratory or machinery in
any molecule or cell in any organism.
The different forms and properties of living beings can
only be explained by supposing the influence of force dif-
ferent from ordinary forces acting upon the matter of which
they are composed, or upon the existence of properties, other
than the inorganic properties, transmitted or handed down
from pre-existing matter having similar, though, perhaps, not
identical properties. These vital properties seem to be super-
added to matter temporarily, and are not, like the former,
32 PROTOPLASM.
permanent endowments. The one class of properties
remains permanently attached to the elements of matter ;
the other may be once removed, but can never be restored.
The material properties belong to the matter, whether living
or dead ; but where are the vital properties in the dead
material? If physicists and chemists would restore to life
that which is dead, we should all believe in the doctrine
they teach. So long as they tell us their investigations only
tend towards such a consummation, they must expect a few
to be wanting in faith.
" You may bury me as you choose, if you can only catch me.
But you will not understand me when I tell you that I, Socrates,
who am now speaking, shall not remain with you after having drunk
the poison, but shall depart to some of the enjoyments of the blest.
You must not talk about burying or burning Socrates, as if I were
suffering some terrible operation. Such language is inauspicious and
depressing to our minds. Keep up your courage and talk only of
burying the body of Socrates ; conduct the burial as you think best,
and most decent. "—Plato, Phcedon, p. 115, C-D. ; Grate's Plato,
vol. //., p. 193.
GERMINAL OR LINING MATTER,
AND FORMED MATTER.
)THING that lives is alive in every part. Pro-
bably no one would maintain that the shell of
an oyster or mussel, for example, was, like the
living moving mollusk itself, in a living state. Never-
theless, the shell grows, but upon careful examination
it will be found that growth is restricted to certain
points. It grows at the free edge and upon the inner
surface, and thus increases in dimensions. By far the
greater part of the shell, therefore, is as lifeless while it yet
remains connected with the living animal as after it has
been preserved in our cabinet. The new matter which
is added to it by the living creature is prepared and
formed through the instrumentality of living matter. In
man, and the higher animals, the free portions of the
nails and hair, the outer part of the cuticle, and a por-
tion of the dental tissues, are evidently lifeless. But the
waste and removal of some of these is compensated for to a
great extent by the addition of new matter by living particles.
Of the internal tissues a great part is also in a non-living
condition, and it therefore becomes necessary in all in-
quiries concerning the nature of the changes and actions
taking place in living beings, to determine at the outset,
what parts of these beings are in a living state, and what
D
34
PROTOPLASM.
parts have already ceased to live, although they may per-
form important service of a passive kind, and be connected
with the matter that is actually alive. Even in the smallest
organisms which exhibit the simplest characters, as well as
in every texture of the most highly complex beings, we can
demonstrate two kinds of matter, differing in most remarkable
particulars from one another ; or perhaps it would be more
correct to say, matter in two different states, manifesting
different properties and exhibiting differences in appearance,
chemical composition, &c., and physical characters. This
distinction is essential and invariable, and although by calling
everything entering into the composition of a living being
by the same name, all differences of state, structure, and
composition may be ignored, these cannot be destroyed;
and every one who really desires to learn anything about
the structure, growth, and actions of living things will find
himself compelled to admit these differences, and will at once
proceed to investigate how they are to be accounted for.
In my lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, in
the spring of 1860, I demonstrated in the tissues of plants,
animals, and man in health and disease, matter in the two
different states above referred to, and I showed that every
normal and abnormal cell or elemental unit of every tissue
capable of growth, or possessing formative power, invariably
consisted of matter in these two states or conditions :
i. Living, active, formative ; 2. Lifeless, passive, formed.
In my preparations these two different forms of matter are
at once distinguished, the first being artificially coloured
with carmine, while the matter in the last condition remains
untinged.
LIVING AND FORMED MATTER. 35
As investigation proceeded, I became more and more
convinced of the importance of the distinction I had drawn,
and it was proved that the matter coloured, which had been
considered by many authors to be of little importance, was
really in the living, active, growing state. It was shown
that upon it all growth, multiplication, conversion, formation,
and, in short, life depends. And in many instances when
death occurred, the matter in the first state alone changed,
while the last remained unaltered. The first was alone
capable of dying, for, in fact, this only had been alive. On
the other hand, the matter in the second condition, although
it may possess very remarkable properties, and have a highly
complex chemical composition never grows or multiplies. It
never converts or forms. New matter may be added to it, but
it cannot convert matter of itself. In short, it does not live.
Lastly, facts and arguments were advanced which showed
that all matter in the last or formed state was once in the
first or living state, so that the properties it acquired and
the characters it possessed as formed matter were to be
attributed to the changes which had been brought about
while the matter existed in the antecedent or living state.
There is reason to think that not even the smallest
living particle seen under the i -501)1 of an inch objective
consists of matter in the same state in every part, for it
consists of — i, living matter; 2, matter formed from this;
and 3, pabulum, which i takes up.
The matter in the first state is alone concerned in develop-
ment, and the production of those materials which ultimately
take the form of tissue, secretion, deposit, as the case may be.
It alone possesses the power of growth and of producing
D 2
3 6 PROTOPLASM.
matter like itself out of materials differing from it materially
in composition, properties, and powers. I therefore called it
germinal ox living matter, to distinguish it from Reformed ma-
terial, which is in all cases destitute of these properties. The
difference between germinal or living matter and the pabu-
lum which nourishes it, on the one hand, and the formed
material which is produced by it, on the other, is, I believe,
absolute. The pabulum does not shade by imperceptible
gradations into the living matter, and this latter into the
formed material ; but the passage from one state into the
other is sudden and abrupt, although there may be much
living matter mixed with little lifeless matter or vice versa.
The ultimate particles of matter pass from the lifeless into
the living state, and from the latter into the dead state,
suddenly. Matter cannot be said to half-live or half-die.
It is either dead or living, animate or inanimate; and formed
matter has ceased to live.
Matter may be more or less perfectly or imperfectly
formed, and formed matter may differ in hardness, colour,
consistence, and a number of other qualities, and it may
gradually pass from one state into the other ; but nothing
of this kind is observed in the case of the germinal matter.
The formed matter may possess very remarkable properties,
and may undergo various physical and chemical changes
under the influence of heat, moisture, oxygen, &c. It may
permit some fluids to permeate it, and may interfere with
the passage of others. It may contribute to the stability of
the organism, and perform a variety of important functions,
but it cannot take the place of the germinal or living matter,
nor in many cases does it continue to exhibit its characteristic
LIVING AND FORMED MATTER, AND PABULUM. 37
properties after the death of the germinal matter belonging
to it has occurred.
The terms Living Matter, Formed Matter, and Pabulum.
—Since many kinds of formed matter had been called
protoplasm as well as the matter which is in the living state,
I should have been wrong if I had employed that term in
speaking of 'living matter. From the time when my re-
searches were made to the present, the confusion in the use
of the word protoplasm has continued to increase, until every
form of tissue has been thus called, as well as every kind of
germinal or living matter. And it would only add to the exist-
ing confusion if any attempt were now made again to alter
the meaning of the word ; so that, upon the whole, it seems
better to use the more simple term living or germinal matter
to denote the growing, active, moving substance which is
peculiar to everything living, and which is alone concerned
in the multiplication, growth, and formation of all tissues
and organisms.
Living or germinal matter, formed matter, and pabulum,
are the only terms required in describing the development,
formation, and growth of any tissue, the production of
secretions, and other phenomena peculiar to living things ;
and I have ventured to suggest the use of these terms,
because they have the advantage of being simple. They
can be accurately denned and distinguished from other
terms. They are short, expressive, and can be remembered
without difficulty, and there is certainly an absence of that
mysteriousness which hangs about so many of our scientific
words in ordinary use, and greatly adds to the difficulties
experienced by the student.
38 PROTOPLASM.
General Characters of Germinal Matter. — The characters
of germinal matter may be studied in the lowest organisms
in existence, and in plants, as well as in man and the higher
animals. Germinal or living matter is always transparent,
colourless, and, as far as can be ascertained by examination
with the highest powers, perfectly structureless, and it exhibits
these same characters at every period of existence.
The germinal matter of the thallus of the growing
sugar fungus exists in considerable quantity, and is well
adapted for examination. The growing extremity of the
branch is rounded, and here the process of growth is
going on with great activity. When the operation of
staining has been conducted successfully, these growing
extremities are more deeply stained than the rest of the
germinal matter. A similar fact is observed if one of the
placental tufts is submitted to examination. At the extreme
end of each tuft is a mass of germinal matter which is darkly
stained by the carmine fluid. Behind this, and growing
towards it, is the vascular loop ; but as the tufts grow, the
mass of formless, structureless germinal matter at the end of
each moves onwards, the vessels being developed in its
wake. This formless living matter moves forwards and
burrows, as it were, into the nutrient pabulum, some of
which it takes up as it moves on. It is not pushed from
behind, but it moves forward of its own accord. In a
similar manner the advancing fungus bores its way into the
material upon which it feeds, and the root filament insinuates
itself into interstices between the particles of the soil. In
the hair, the germinal matter grows and multiplies at the
base or bulb, pushing the firm and already formed tissue
AMCEBA.
39
before it. In the first case, the germinal matter is increasing
at the extremity of a filament which it spins behind it as it
moves on ; in the last, the tissue already formed is pushed
on by the production of new texture in its rear. The ex-
tremity of the hair is its oldest part, and nearest to the root
is the tissue which was most recently formed. But whe-
ther germinal matter moves on in its entirety, or, advancing
from a fixed point, forms a filament, a tube, or other
structure which accumulates behind it, or itself remains
stationary while the products of formation are forced on-
wards in one direction, or outwards in all, the nature of the
force exerted is the same, and due to the marvellous power
which one part of a living mass possesses of moving in advance
of another portion of the same, as may be actually seen to occur
in the humble amceba, in the mucus- or in the white blood-
corpuscle from man's organism, as well as in the pus corpuscle
formed in disease.
Amoeba. — Among the simplest living things known to us
are the amoebae, which might be almost described as animate
masses of perfectly transparent moving matter. Amoebae,
fig. 4, pi. II., can be obtained for examination by placing a
small fragment of animal or vegetable matter in a little
water in a wine-glass, and leaving it in the light part of a
warm room for a few days. I have found it convenient to
introduce a few filaments of cotton wool into the water.
The amoebae collect amongst the fibres, which prevent them
from being crushed by the pressure of the thin glass cover.
The delicate material of which these simple creatures
are composed exhibits no indications of actual structure,
although it is darker and more granular in some parts than
4o
PROTOPLASM.
in others. The germinal matter of all organisms, and of
the tissues and organs of each organism, exhibits precisely
the same characters. It lives, and grows, and forms in the
same way, although the conditions under which the phe-
nomena of life growth and formation are carried on differ
very much in different kinds of germinal matter. A tem-
perature at which one kind will live and grow actively will
be fatal to many other kinds. So, too, as regards pabulum,
— substances which are appropriated by one form of ger-
minal matter will act as a poison to another. But the way
in which the germinal matter moves, divides and subdivides,
grows, and undergoes conversion into tissue, is the same in
all. Many remarkable differences in structure, properties,
action, and character, are associated with close similarity,
if not actual identity of composition. These must, there-
fore, be attributed not to properties of elements, physical
forces, chemical affinities, or other characters which we
can ascertain or estimate by physical examination, but to
a difference in vital power which is inherited, which we
cannot isolate, but which it would be unreasonable to
ignore.
On Vital Movements. — One characteristic of every kind
of living matter is spontaneous movement. This, unlike
the movement of any kind of non-living matter yet dis-
covered, occurs in all directions, and seems to depend upon
changes in the matter itself, rather than upon impulses
communicated to the particles from without.
I have been able to watch the movements of small
amoebae, which multiplied freely without first reaching the
size of the ordinary individuals. I have represented the
VITAL MOVEMENTS. 41
appearance under a magnifying power of 5,000 diameters of
some of the most minute amoebae I have been able to
discover. (Plate II, fig. 3.) Several of these were less
than 1001ooTJth of an inch in diameter, and yet were in a state
of most active movement. The alteration in form was
very rapid, and the different tints in the different parts of
the moving mass, resulting from alterations in thickness,
were most distinctly observed. The living bodies might, in
fact, be described as consisting of minute portions of very
transparent material, exhibiting the most active movements
in various directions, in every part, and capable of absorbing
nutrient materials from the surrounding medium. A portion
which was at one moment at the lowest point of the mass
would pass in an instant to the highest part. In these
movements one part seemed, as it were, to pass through
other parts, while the whole mass moved now in one, now
in another direction, and movements in different parts of
the mass occurred in directions different from that in which
the whole was moving. What movements in lifeless matter
can be compared with these ?
The movements above described continue as long as the
external conditions remain favourable ; but, if these alter
and the amoeba be exposed to the influence of unfavourable
circumstances — as altered pabulum, cold, &c. — the move-
ments become very slow, and then cease altogether. The
organism becomes spherical, and the trace of soft formed
material upon the surface increases until a firm protective
covering, envelope, or cell-wall results. In this way the
life of the germinal matter is preserved until the return of
favourable conditions, when the living matter emerges from
42 PROTOPLASM.
its prison, grows, and soon gives rise to a colony of new
amoebae, which exhibit the characteristic movements.
Mucus Corpuscle. — Every one knows that upon the
surface of the mucous membrane of the air-passages, even
in health, there is a small quantity of a soft viscid matter
generally termed mucus. This mucus, said to be secreted by
the mucous membrane, contains certain oval or spherical
bodies or corpuscles, which are transparent and granular.
From the changes of form which take place in them, it is
certain that the matter of which they are composed is
almost diffluent. These corpuscles or cells are mucus cor-
puscles, but they have no cell-wall. They are separated
from each other by, and are embedded in, a more or less
transparent, viscid, tenacious substance formed by the cor-
puscles, and termed mucus. (Plate II, fig. i.)
No language could convey a correct idea of the changes
which may be seen to take place in the form of the living
mucus or pus corpuscle j every part of the substance of a
corpuscle exhibits distinct alterations within a few seconds.
The material which was in one part may move to another
part. Not only does the position of the component particles
alter with respect to one another, but it never remains the
same. There is no alternation of movements. Were it
possible to take hundreds of photographs at the briefest
intervals, no two would be exactly alike, nor would they
exhibit different gradations of the same change ; nor is it
possible to represent the movements with any degree of
accuracy by drawings, because the outline is changing in
many parts at the same moment. I have seen an entire
corpuscle move onwards in one definite direction for a dis-
PLATE II.
GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER.
One of the living mucns corpr.KclP«! 7'pprfsentPcl
in T''iii. 1, iTiai^nified by the g\T = '.'WXi diameters,
showing alterations in form during <>\\>*
us from tli-3 trnrhon during life,
Very TTiimUe living am;i'l,rr>, mafinifiM COM
inute partirle of iprminal maltr-r from living
•
x asoo.
x -000.
a pa£e 43
VITAL MOVEMENTS. 43
tance equal to its own length or more. Protrusions would
occur principally at one end, and the general mass would
gradually follow. Again, protrusions would take place in
the same direction, and slowly the remainder of the cor-
puscle would be drawn onwards, until the whole had
been removed from the place it originally occupied, and
would advance onward for a short distance in the mucus in
which it was embedded. From the first protrusions smaller
protrusions very often occur, and these gradually become
pear-shaped, remaining attached by a narrow stem, and in a
few seconds perhaps again become absorbed into the
general mass. From time to time, however, some of the
small spherical portions are detached from the parent mass,
and become independent masses of germinal matter, which
grow until they become ordinary mucus corpuscles. (PI. II,
fig. 2.) Are these phenomena, I would ask, at all like
any known to occur in lifeless material ?
The component particles evidently alter their positions
in a most remarkable manner. One particle may move in
advance of another, or round another. A portion may
move into or round another portion. A bulging may occur
at one point of the circumference, or at ten or twenty
different points at the same moment. The moving power
evidently resides in every particle of a very transparent,
invariably colourless, and structureless material. By the
very highest powers only an indication of minute spherical
particles can be discerned. Because molecules have been
seen in some of the masses of moving matter, the motion has
been attributed to these. It is true the molecules do move,
but the living transparent material in which they are situated
44 PROTOPLASM.
moves first, and the molecules flow into the extended portion.
The movements cannot, therefore, be ordinary molecular
movements. It has been said that the movements may result
from diffusion, but what diffusion or other movement with
which we are acquainted at all resembles these ? Observers
have ascribed them to a difference in density of different
parts, but who has been able to produce such movements by
preparing fluids of different density ? But further, in the case
of the living matter, these supposed fluids of different density
make themselves and retain their differences in density.
Nor is it any explanation of the movements to attribute
them to inherent " irritability," unless we can show in what
this irritability essentially consists. Some dismiss the
matter by saying that the movements depend upon the
property of " contractility," but the movements of germinal
matter are totally distinct from contractility, as manifested
by muscular tissue ; since they take place in every direction,
and every movement differs from the rest, while in muscular
contraction there is a constant repetition of changes taking
place alternately in directions at right angles to one
another ; and hence, if the movements in question be due
to contractility, it is necessary to assume two very different
kinds of contractile property.*
The movements in the mucus corpuscle and in the amoeba,
are of the same nature as those which occur in the germinal
matter of many plants, as is easily observed in the cells of
the leaves of the vallisneria or the anacharis, in the chara,
and in the hairs of the flower of Tradescantia ; and the
* See my paper "On Contractility as distinguished from purely
vital movements." — "Trans. Mic. Soc." 1866.
NEW LIVING CENTRES. 45
appearance of the living matter under very high powers is
precisely the same in all cases. Similar movements certainly
occur in pus, and in cancer, and probably in every kind of
living matter in health and in disease. (PI. II, figs. 5 and 6.)
In some instances the movements continue for many hours
after the living matter has been removed from the surface
upon which it grew. In other cases, and we shall not be
surprised that this should be so in the higher animals, death
occurs the instant the conditions under which the living
matter exists are but slightly modified. In many instances
no movements can be seen, but the evidence of their occur-
rence is almost as decided as if they were visible, for we
discern certain results which can only be explained by the
occurrence of such movements as have been referred to.
I have often tried to persuade the physicist, who has
so long prophesied the existence of molecular machinery in
living beings, to seek for it in the "colourless, structureless,1'
germinal matter. But he contents himself with asserting
that such machinery exists, although he cannot see it or
make it evident to himself or others.
Of New Centres — Nuclei and Nucleoli. — In many masses
of germinal matter a smaller spherical portion often ap-
pearing a mere point is observed, and in some cases
this divides before the division of the parent mass takes
places. This, however, is not necessary to the process,
for division takes place in cases in which no such bodies
are to be seen, and it frequently happens that one or more
of these smaller spots or spherical masses may appear in
its substance, after a portion of germinal matter has been
detached from the parent mass. These are to be regarded
46 PROTOPLASM.
as new centres composed of living matter. Within these a
second series is sometimes produced. The first have been
called nuclei, and those within them nucleoli. Marvellous
powers have been attributed to nuclei and nucleoli, and
by many these are supposed to be the agents alone con-
cerned in the process of multiplication and reproduction.
Nuclei and nucleoli are always more intensely coloured by
alkaline colouring matters than other parts of the living or
germinal matter, a fact which is alone sufficient to show the
difference between a true nucleus or new centre, and an oil
globule, which has often been wrongly termed a nucleolus.
I have endeavoured to show that the bodies called nuclei
and nucleoli may be regarded as new centres which have
arisen in already existing germinal matter. These new
centres may be few or very numerous, and there may be
many successive series of such centres, each, when it comes
to be developed, manifesting powers different from the
pre-existing series. And in certain cases it would appear
that as this process of formation of new centres, one within
the other, proceeds, new powers are acquired, or if we suppose
that all possessed the same powers, those masses only which
were last produced retain them, and manifest them when
placed under favourable conditions. Although nuclei and nu-
cleoli are germinal or living matter, they are not undergoing
conversion into formed material. Under certain conditions
the nucleus may increase, and exhibit all the phenomena of
ordinary germinal matter — new nuclei may be developed
within it, new nucleoli within them ; so that ordinary ger-
minal matter may become formed material, its nucleus
growing larger and taking its place. The original nucleolus
PLATE 111.
OVA Ob' THE COMMON STICKLEBACK.
PRODUCTION OL1' NEW LIVING CENTRES IN PRE-EXISTING LIVING MATTER.
varian ova undergoing <U:-
the midst of a
ed of cells. Magnified 6W
diameters.
U\ arian ovum, with large terrainal vesicle.
The yolk cracked and exhibiting fissures ra-
diating outwards. Magnified 100 diameters.
Fig. 9.
Wig. lo.
>. 11.
n:il spots,
centres within them, x 1
Germinal spots, with new centres (micleoh)
witljin them, and more mmut.- -_V ruiinal soots
in the interval." between th<;m. X 500."
ICOOth of an i
215.
NEW LIVING CENTRES. 47
now becomes the nucleus, and new nucleoli make their
appearance in what was the original nucleolus. The whole
process consists of evolution from centres, and the produc-
tion of new centres within pre-existing centres. Zones of
colour, of different intensity, are often observed in a cell
coloured with carmine ; the outermost or oldest, or that part
which is losing its vital powers, and becoming converted
into formed material, being very slightly coloured, — the
most central part, or the nucleus, although furthest from the
colouring solution, exhibiting the greatest intensity of colour.
These points are illustrated in PI. VI, fig. 19, and some
other figures.
Germinal matter, in a comparatively quiescent state is
not unfrequently entirely destitute of nuclei, but these
bodies sometimes make their appearance if the mass be
more freely supplied with nutrient matter. This fact may
be noticed in the case of the connective tissue corpuscles,
and the masses of germinal matter connected with the walls
of vessels, nerves, muscular tissue, epithelium, &c., which
often exhibit no nuclei (or according to some, nucleoli), but
soon after these tissues become supplied with an increased
quantity of pabulum, several small nuclei make their appear-
ance in all parts of the germinal matter. (PI. VIII, fig. 36.)
So far from nuclei being formed first and the other
elements of the cell deposited around them, they make their
appearance in the substance of a pre-existing mass of
germinal matter, as has been already stated. The true
nucleus and nucleolus are not composed of special con-
stituents differing from the germinal matter, nor do they
perform any special operations. Small oil-globules, which
4 8 PROTOPLASM.
invariably result from post-mortem changes in any germinal
matter, have often been mistaken for nuclei and nucleoli,
but these terms if employed at all should be restricted to
the minute masses of germinal matter referred to.
THE CELL, OR ELEMENTARY PART.
The living matter, with the formed matter upon its
surface, whatever may be the structure, properties, and
consistence of the latter, is the anatomical unit, the elementary
part or cell. This may form the entire organism, in which
case, it must be regarded as a complete individual. Millions
of such elementary parts or cells are combined to form
every tissue and organ of man and the higher animals.
However much organisms and tissues in their fully formed
state may vary as regards the character, properties, and com-
position of the formed material, all were first in the condi-
tion of clear, transparent, structureless, formless living matter.
Every growing cell, and every cell capable of growth,
contains germinal matter. The young cell seems to consist
almost entirely of this living material — a fact well observed
in a specimen of cuticle from the young frog, which may
be contrasted with more advanced cuticle from the same
animal. In the mature cells only a small mass of germinal
matter (usually termed the nucleus) remains.
In the fully formed fat cell there is so little germinal
matter left, that it may be easily be overlooked. In disease,
on the other hand, the germinal matter may increase to three
or four times its ordinary amount, when it becomes a
very striking object. The ovum at an early period of its
PLATE IV.
EPITHELIAL CELLS JROM MOUTH. GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER, RED;
.FORMED MATERIAL, BLACK. SHOWING CHANGES DURING GROWTH.
h rough thick layer of epithelium covering the papillae of the tongue. sho\viu^
the germ i te formed material ot each elementary unit or e^ll In the lower
part of tb ' Inch ara closest to the nutrient matter are seen. Here there are no
trepARATF CKIT.S, but the soft formed material forma a continuous mass. 'C'hese ;t:
c-!ls, ;ind are irmltipl \ in •'; in number When the formed material i '-mid the
£urm:n;i'. ! : 1:1011 ceaHes. As the cells :IM
the surface, c, to take the pla moved, the formed material becomes firna aud dry, and
the remains of the germinal matter die. Magnified 700 diameters.
of an me!;
THE CELL, OR ELEMENTARY PART. 49
development is but a naked mass of germinal matter, with-
out a cell wall, but having a new centre and often numerous
new centres (known as germinal spots or nuclei) embedded
in it, enclosed in a capsule of formed material " cell wall."*
The mode of formation of the cell, or elemental unit,
as well as the origin from it of other units, is well illustrated
in the formation of the ovum. In PI. Ill, fig 7, the cells
constituting the tissue of the ovary of the common stickle-
back are represented, and amongst them are seen true ova
at a very early period of development. The youngest of
these differs but little from the cells amongst which it lies.
It is, in fact, but one of these which has advanced in de-
velopment beyond the rest. In fig. 8, a small but complete
ovum is seen with its germinal, or living matter, here called
germinal vesicle, surrounded by the yolk which consists of
formed matter. In the^ germinal matter are seen numerous
germinal spots, which are new living centres of growth
originating in living matter. In these are new centres, figs.
9, 10, n, and in these last others would have appeared at a
later period. In all cases the lifeless nutrient material must
pass into the very centre of the living particles, before the
peculiar vital properties are communicated to it.
On the Production of Formed Material. — The processes
of growth and increase, as they occur in the tissues of all
* The cell wall (Huxley's "periplastic substance," regarded by him
as active and formative) is perfectly passive, while the germinal matter
(Huxley's endoplast of 1853, considered by him as unimportant) is
the really active and the only living matter of the cell. It is very
strange that Mr. Huxley should have so completely modified his views
upon this fundamental question, as he has done, without having offered
one word in explanation.
50 PROTOPLASM.
fully-formed living beings, may be well studied in the simple
tissue which forms the external covering of the body, and
is prolonged in a modified form into the internal cavities.
If a thin section be made perpendicularly through this,
down to the tissue which contains the nerves and blood-
vessels upon which it rests, the appearances represented
in PI. IV, fig. 12, will be observed.
In the first place, it will be remarked that in equal bulks
of the tissue there is a larger quantity of germinal matter in
the lower part, a, which is close to the vessels, than in the
upper part, <:, which is a long distance from the nutrient
surface, and that the converse is the case as regards the
formed material which gives to this tissue its properties
and physical -characters, Secondly, it will be noticed that
the individual masses of germinal matter increase in size
till they arrive at about half way towards the surface, fr, while
from this point to the surface they diminish, c; and thirdly,
that the distance between them increases on account of the
increased formation and accumulation of formed material.
By the time the cells have reached the surface, the distance
between the masses of germinal matter is reduced again, by
the drying and condensation of the formed material.
The changes which each individual cell or anatomical
unit passes through may now be considered. At the deep
aspect near the nutrient surface are masses of germinal matter
embedded in a soft, mucus-like, and, as yet, continuous
formed material, a. The masses of germinal matter divide,
and each of the resulting masses becomes invested with a thin
layer of the mucus-like matter. In this way, the elementary
parts or cells multiply in number, to compensate for
PLATE V.
,• , : SHOWING FORMED MATERIAL IN THE
V1VELY AND THE MODE OF ITS FORMATION.
Fig. 14.
layer of the conjunctiva
iviiring the front of the eye) of a girl,
- outiuuous and not yet sept.
corresponding to each mass of germinal
there are no sej arate c-lla. X i'OO.
Superficial or older cells, from the
same specimen as Fig. 13, showing
formed material belonging to each
mass of germinal matter, giving rise
to the appearance of separate cells.
X 500.
•'i-^v- jv. •
mum) of a young newt, showing masses of germinal matter
some of which are dividing, at a, b, c : with form . hich is continuous throughout as
in young ..-pilhclmm. Figs. 13, at ,/, Fig. U*. p ol
FORMED MA TERIAL. 5 1
the loss of those old cells which are gradually removed
from the surface.* Each mass of germinal matter increases
in size by the absorption of nutrient pabulum, which, as
in all other cases, passes through the layer of formed
' material. But at the same time, a portion of the germinal
matter undergoes conversion into formed material, which
accumulates upon the surface within that already formed,
and as each new layer is deposited upon the surface of the
germinal matter, those layers of formed material already pro-
duced are stretched, and with them the last developed are
more or less incorporated. (PI. VIII, fig. 28, p. 60.) For a
time, the germinal matter increases, while new-formed
material is being produced. In other words, both the
constituent parts of the entire cell increase in amount
up to a certain period of its life. (PI. IV, b.) But as
new cells continue to be produced below, those already
formed are gradually removed farther and farther from
the vascular surface, while at the same time their formed
material becomes more condensed and less permeable to
nutrient matter. From this point, each entire cell ceases
to increase in size, while the germinal matter actually
diminishes, because it undergoes conversion into formed
material ; at the same time, owing to the increased density
of the formed material, and its greater distance from the
vessels, little new pabulum is taken up to compensate for this.
* The description here given is not strictly accurate, inasmuch as
the new masses of germinal matter do not all move in a direction to-
wards the surface. Some tend in the opposite direction, towards the
subcuticular tissue, but this need not be discussed here, as it would
complicate the description without helping in any way to elucidate the
question now being considered.
£ 2
52 PROTOPLASM.
The germinal matter (nucleus) becomes smaller as the cell
advances in age. So that it is possible to judge of the age
of a cell, irrespective of its size, by the relative amount of
its component substances. In old cells, there is much
formed material in proportion to the germinal matter, while
young cells seem to be composed almost entirely of the latter
substance. In very old cells, the small portion of germinal
matter still unconverted into formed material, dies, and the
cell having by this time arrived at the surface, is cast off, — a
mass of perfectly passive, lifeless, formed material.
The facts here described are illustrated in the figure repre-
sented in PL IV, p. 48, which should be carefully studied.
Of the so-called Intercellular Substance. — In cartilage
and some other tissues, there is no line of separation
between the portion of formed material which belongs
to each mass of germinal matter, as is the case in epi-
thelium, but the formed material throughout the entire
tissue forms an uninterrupted mass of tissue, matrix, or, as
it has been termed, connective substance. (PI. V, fig. 15).
From the apparent essential difference in structure, it has
been supposed that tissues of this character were developed
upon a principle very different to that upon which epithelial
structures were produced. It has been maintained by some
that in cartilage a cell wall, distinct from the intervening
transparent material, existed around each cell, and it has
been very generally concluded that the matrix was depo-
sited between the cells, and hence this was called " inter-
cellular substance." But it must not be supposed that
epithelium is in all cases to be distinguished from cartilage
by the existence of separate cells. In many forms of epi-
PLATE VI.
CARTILAGE SHOWING MODE OF PRODUCTION OF FORMED MATERIAL.
I-ig. 16. _ Flg, Yl.
ocyfiEj
Cartilage., frog ; showing germinal i
formed material, x 700.
:::::::: .;;• liiLliiilir .:: ,:;;; \-\^..^-.~~ ::• i^susiia
ig rartilage, kitten, showing tlie CON-
Fig. 19.
•• '<-: at different :\ ' 9. „ At\ ".attirth;
6. six weeks old ; c, nearly full grown ; d, adult
cat. x 'J15. Showing alteration in the lelative
proportions of germinal matter and formed
material at different ages
.' '-i-ninal m;
ilage inti
page 6-2
INTERCELLULAR SUBSTANCE.
53
thelium at an early period of formation, the formed material
corresponding to the several masses of germinal matter is
continuous throughout, and presents no indications of divi-
sion into separate cells. This is well seen in the lower
part of the specimen represented in PI. IV, but in fig. 13,
PI. V, an unusually striking example is given. The spe-
cimen was taken from the deeper portion of the con-
junctival epithelium of man. Not only is there no indi-
cation of division into distinct cells, but the structure
would be described as a matrix exhibiting spaces occu-
pied by the masses of germinal matter. The arrange-
ment exactly corresponds with that existing in the case of
cartilage, and the masses of germinal matter with a thin
investment of formed material may be removed just as in
that tissue. It is, therefore, clearly erroneous to consider
cartilage and epithelium as representatives of different classes
of tissues. The analogy between them will be at once under-
stood by a glance at fig. 13, and fig. 15, which have been
carefully copied from actual specimens. In fig. 14, a portion
of older epithelium from the same surface is represented.
In this, each mass of germinal matter is invested with its
own layers of formed material, and these are distinct from
neighbouring portions. A " cell," or elementary part of
fully-formed cartilage and tendon, consists of a mass of
germinal matter, with a proportion of formed material
around it. A line passing midway between the several
masses of germinal matter would mark roughly the limit of
the formed material, corresponding to each particular mass
of germinal matter, and this would correspond with the
outer part of the surface or boundary of the epithelial cell.
54 PROTOPLASM.
In order to understand the true relation of the so-called
intercellular substance of cartilage or tendon to the masses
of germinal matter, it is necessary to study the tissue at
different ages. At an early period of development, these
tissues appear to consist of masses of germinal matter only.
As development advances, the formed material increases,
and the masses of germinal matter become separated farther
and farther from one another. (PI. VI, fig. 16.) The appear-
ances of a cell wall around the germinal matter in the
fully-formed tissue, and other alterations which occur, and
anomalous appearances which often result as age advances,
can be even more readily understood upon the view here
advanced, than upon the intercellular-substance theory
which has been so strongly supported by some observers.
See PI. VI, figs. T 6 to 22.
Of the Formation of the Contractile Tissue of Muscle. —
A muscle "cell," or elementary part, will consist, like that
of cartilage and tendon, of the so-called nucleus, with
a portion of the muscular tissue corresponding to it. In
general arrangement it closely resembles what is seen in
tendon. The contractile material of muscle may be shown
to be continuous with the germinal matter, and oftentimes
a thin filament of the transversely striated tissue may be
detached with the oval mass of germinal matter still con-
nected with it, showing that, as in tendon, the germinal
matter passes uninterruptedly into the formed material.
This contractile tissue is not, like the germinal matter
which produced it, in a living state. In the formation
of the contractile tissue, the germinal matter seems to
move onwards, and at its posterior part gradually under-
WHAT IS A CELL?
55
goes conversion into the tissue. At the same time it
absorbs nutrient material, and thus, although a vast amount
of contractile tissue may have been produced, the germinal
matter which formed it may not have altered in bulk.
(PI. VII, fig. 25.) The fibres of yellow elastic tissue are
formed in the same manner, and each fibre is thickened by
the formation of new material from germinal matter, which
lies upon the external surface of each fibre (fig. 26.).
The Formation of Nerve Fibres. — The nerve fibre is
composed of formed material, which is structurally con-
tinuous with the formed material of the nerve cells of the
nerve centres. A nerve fibre at an early period of develop-
ment consists of a number of oval masses of germinal
matter linearly arranged. As development proceeds, these
become separated farther and farther from one another, and
the non-living tissue which is thus spun off as they become
separated, is the nerve. (PI. VII, fig. 27.)
What is essential to the Cell? — All that is essential
to the cell or elementary part is matter that is in the
living state— germinal matter, and matter that has been in
the living state— formed material. With these is usually
associated a certain proportion of matter about to become
living — the pabulum or food. So that we may say that
in every living thing we have matter in three different
states — matter about to become living, matter actually
living, and matter that has lived. The last, like the first,
is non-living, but unlike this it has been in the living state,
and has had impressed upon it certain characters which
it could not have acquired in any other way. By these
characters we know that it has lived, for we can no more
56 PROTOPLASM.
cause matter artificially to exhibit the characters of the dried
leaf, the lifeless wood, shell, bone, hair, or other tissue, than
we can make living matter itself in our laboratories.
Cells are not like B 'ricks in a Wall. — Cells forming a
tissue have been compared with bricks in a wall, but the
cells are not like bricks, they have not the same con-
stitution in every part, nor are they made first and then
embedded in the mortar. Each brick of the natural
wall grows of itself, places itself in position, forms and
embeds itself in the mortar of its own making. The whole
wall grows in every part, and while growing may throw
out bastions which grow and adapt themselves perfectly to
the altering structure. Even now it is argued by some
that because things, like fully formed cells, may be made
artificially, the actual cells are formed in the same sort
of way — an argument as forcible as would be that of a
person, who after a visit to Madame Tussaud's Exhibition,
seriously maintained that our textures were constructed
upon the same plan as the " life-like " wax figures he had
seen there.
Every one who really studies the elementary parts of
tissues and investigates the changes which occur as the
germinal matter passes through various stages of change
until the fully developed structure results, will be careful
not to accept without due consideration the vague generali-
sations of those who persist in authoritatively declaring that
the changes occurring in cell growth are merely mechanical
and chemical, although they are unable to produce by any
means at their disposal a particle of fibrine, a piece of carti-
lage, or even a fragment of coral. They avoid the difficulty
PL A'!
NUTRITION AND MOVEMENTS OF G5.RMJNAL MATTER.
6
supposed, pabulum, fl
i !>v the arrow*
iterial and passing into the gr-
eat formed rna:
c*, oldest portion ot •
a. terminal matter:
ping in the direction
iversing the formed.
linaL matte
it produced ;
A minute particle of germinal matter
its component spherules of living ma
thin layer of so.'t formed, material on
undergoing change.
tier and
Fig. 25.
nal matter and formed material (contractile tissue) of muscle. The iermhial m
.: 111 the direction Of the arrow. Ir, ' = "~™» v^t™^,-, .. arwl /, V,ur. ITMH rnovf><l from tht
11 the. direction of the arrow. Ir, is now between a. and b, 1 ed frcm U.
position between 6 and c and • • contractile tissue there seen has been fon
Fig. 26.
ellow elastic tissue from the lamb. The germinal matter is moviin; in thci
, and forming the yellow elastic tissue as it proceeds It ha* 1 «en said that.
-,. but a gr«at ruiruber u; DO
specimena.
NUTRITION OF A LIVING CELL. 57
as regards the germinal matter by ignoring its existence, and
attribute to a "molecular machinery" which the mind cannot
conceive, and which cannot be rendered evident to the
senses, all those wonderful phenomena which are really due
to vital power. Moreover, resemblances to living organisms
of the most fanciful kind are adduced apparently for the
purpose of leading people to believe that non-living matter
behaves like that which is alive.*
On the Nutrition of a Living Cell. — In nutrition, the
active changes are exclusively confined to the germinal
matter. The formed material is passive, and probably acts
like a filter, permitting some things to pass and interfering
with the passage of others. In nutrition, pabulum becomes
germinal matter to compensate for the germinal matter
which has been converted into formed material. Now let
us consider the order of these changes, and endeavour to
express them in the simplest possible manner.
Let the germinal matter which came from pre-existing
germinal matter be called a; the non-living pabulum, some
* Professor Tyndall describes (" Proceedings of the Royal Society,"
vol. xvii, No. 105) the changes resulting from the influence of light on
the vapour of an aqueous solution of hydriodic acid. His rhapsodical
description, which extends over an entire page, contains the following
curious allusions and comparisons : — A cloud was developed like an
organism from a formless mass to a marvellously complex structure ;
spectral cones with filmy drapery; exquisite vases with the faintest
clouds, like spectral sheets of liquid, falling over their edges ; clouds
like roses, tulips, sunflowers, and bottles one within the other ; a cloud
like a fish, with eyes, gills, and feelers, and like a jelly fish, with the
internal economy of a highly complex organism, exhibiting the twoness
of the animal form ; as perfect as if it had been turned in a lathe ; and
likely to prove exceedingly valuable to pattern designers !
5 8 PROTOPLASM.
of the elements of which are about to be converted into
germinal matter, shall be b; and the non-living formed
material resulting from changes in the germinal matter, c.
It is to be remarked that b does not contain c in solu-
tion, neither can c be made out of b unless b first passes
through the condition a, and a cannot be formed artificially,
but must come from pre-existing a.
In all cases b is transformed by a into a, and a under-
goes conversion into c. Can anything be more unlike
chemical and physical change ? Neither a, nor #, nor c can
be made by the chemist ; nor if you give him b can he
make a or c out of it ; nor can he tell you anything about
the "molecular condition" or chemical constitution of a,
for the instant he commences his analysis a has ceased to
be a, and he is merely dealing with products resulting from
the death of a, not with the actual living a itself. The
course which the pabulum takes in the nutrition of the
germinal matter of a cell is represented by the arrows in
fig. 23, pi. VII.
The nature of the process of nutrition is more fully
discussed towards the end of the next section, " OF LIFE."
Of the Increase of Cells. — Several distinct modes of cell
increase or multiplication have been described, but in all
cases the process depends upon the germinal matter only.
It is this which divides ; and it is the only part of the cell
which is actively concerned in the process of multiplication.
It may divide into two or more equal portions, or give off
many buds or offsets, each of which grows as a separate
body as soon as it is detached. (PI. VIII.)
The formed material of the cell is perfectly passive in
CHANGES IN THE CELL IN DISEASE. 59
the process of increase and multiplication. Even the
apparently very active contractile tissue of muscle has no
capacity for increase or formation. If soft or diffluent, a
portion of the formed material may collect around each of
the masses into which the germinal matter has divided, but
it does not grow in or move in and form a partition, as has
often been stated. When a septum or partition exists, it
results not from "growing in," but it is simply produced by a
portion of the germinal matter undergoing conversion into
formed material of which the partition is composed. (PI. V,
fig. 15 a and b.)
Of the Changes in the Cell in Disease. — I have en-
deavoured to show that of the different constituents of
the fully formed cell, the germinal matter is alone con-
cerned in all active change. This is in fact the only
portion of the cell which lives, while at an early period
of development, some of the structures usually regarded as
essential to cell existence are altogether absent, and the cell
is but a mass of germinal matter. But it must be borne in
mind that at all periods of life, in certain parts of the
textures and organs, and in the nutrient fluids, are masses
of germinal matter, destitute of any cell-wall, and exactly
resembling those of which at an early period the embryo
is entirely composed. White blood and lymph corpuscles,
chyle corpuscles, many of the corpuscles in the spleen,
thymus and thyroid, corpuscles in the solitary glands, in
the villi, some of those upon the surface of mucous mem
branes, some in connection with muscle, nerve, bone, carti-
lage, and some other tissues, are of this nature, and consist
of living germinal matter, with mere traces of soft formed
60 PROTOPLASM.
material around each mass. There is no structure through
which these soft living particles, or small portions of living
matter detached from them, may not make their way. The
destruction of tissue may be very quickly effected by the
growth and multiplication of such masses of germinal
matter. Many of the changes in disease result from the
undue growth of this substance, and indeed there is no
operation peculiar to living beings in which germinal or
living matter does not take part. Any sketch of the struc-
ture of the cell would be incomplete without an account of
some of the essential alterations which occur in it in disease.
I propose, therefore, to refer very briefly to the general
nature of some of the most important morbid changes.
Within certain limits, the conditions under which cells
ordinarily live may be modified without any departure from
the healthy state, but if the conditions be very considerably
changed, disease may result, or the cell may die. For
instance, if cells, which in their normal state grow slowly,
be supplied with an excess of nutrient pabulum, and increase
in number very quickly, a morbid state is engendered. Or
if, on the other hand, the rate at which multiplication takes
place be reduced in consequence of an insufficient supply
of nourishment, or from other causes, a diseased state may
result. So that, in the great majority of cases, disease or
the morbid state essentially differs from health or the healthy
state in an increased or reduced rate of growth and multi-
plication of the germinal matter of one or more particular
tissues or organs. In the process of inflammation, in the
formation of inflammatory products, as lymph and pus, in the
production of tubercle and cancer, we see the results of in-
PLATE VIII.
FROM THE NUTRITION OF HEALTH, TO THE INFLAMMATION O?
DISEASE.
*
The production of formed material from germinal matter in epithelial cells. See also Plate IV.
Fisf. 33.
?ig. 30. Fie. 31. Fig. 32.
Rupturp of forr
[jcrmiLtiuA fre-.
pabuli
0 of.ger-
ol adult c-'-ii i
of pabulum. In this
foi-med
from the germinal matter of epi-
thelium.
Multiplication of pus corpuscles.
Fig 36.
•
CELL IN DISEASE. 6 1
creased multiplication of the germinal matter of the tissues
or of the germinal matter derived from the blood, con-
sequent upon the appropriation of excess of nutrient pabulum.
In the shrinking, and hardening, and wasting which occur
in many tissues and organs in disease, we see the effects of
the germinal matter of a texture being supplied with too
little nutrient pabulum, in consequence sometimes of an
alteration in the pabulum itself, sometimes of an undue
thickening and condensation of the tissue which forms the
permeable septum, which intervenes between the pabulum
and the germinal matter.
The above observations may be illustrated by reference
to what takes place when pus is formed from an epithelial
cell, in which the nutrition of the germinal matter, and
consequently its rate of growth, is much increased. And
the changes which occur in the liver cell in cases of wasting
and contraction of that organ (cirrhosis] may be advanced
as an illustration of a disease which consists essentially in
the occurrence of changes at a slower rate than would be
the case in the normal condition, consequent upon the
normal access of pabulum to the germinal matter being
interfered with.
The outer hardened formed material of an epithelial cell
may be torn or ruptured mechanically, as in a scratch or
prick by insects (PI. VIII, figs. 32 to 35); or it may be
rendered soft and more permeable to nutrient pabulum by
the action of certain fluids which bathe it. In either case
it is clear that the access of pabulum to the germinal matter
must be facilitated, and the latter necessarily "grows" — that
is, converts certain of the constituents of the pabulum that
62 PROTOPLASM.
come into contact with it into matter like itself — at an
increased rate. The mass of germinal matter increases in
size, and soon begins to divide into smaller portions, fig. 33.
Parts seem to move away from the general mass, fig. 34.
These at length become detached, and thus several separate
masses of germinal matter, which are embedded in the
softened and altered formed material, result, figs. 34, 35.
These changes will be understood by reference to the figures
in Plate VIII. In this way the so-called inflammatory
product pus results. The abnormal pus-corpuscle is pro-
duced from the germinal or living matter of a normal
epithelial or other cell, or elementary part, the germinal
matter of which has been supplied with pahilum much
more freely than in the normal state. In all forms of in-
flammation, the germinal matter of the parts inflamed
increases very much, and the same change occurs in every
kind of fever, fig. 36, pi. VIII, but not proceed to the same
extent. In both conditions there is increased development
of heat due to the increase of the germinal matter. In-
flammations and fevers are so very closely related that an
inflammation may be spoken of as a local fever, and a
fever as a general inflammation.
It will be seen how easily the nature of the changes
occurring in cells in inflammation, fever, and other morbid
changes, can be explained, if the artificial terms, cell-wall,
cell-contents, nucleus, be given up. In all acute internal
inflammations and in fevers a much larger quantity of in-
animate pabulum is taken up by certain cells and con-
verted into germinal matter than in the normal state.
Hence there is, at least in the parts affected, increase in
GERMINAL MATTER IN DISEASE. 63
bulk. Cells of particular organs, which live very slowly in
health, live very fast in certain forms of disease. More
pabulum reaches them, and they grow more rapidly in
consequence.
It is by this process of increased multiplication and
reproduction of certain kinds of germinal matter of the
organism, under altered conditions, that the germs which
constitute the material particles of contagious diseases
result. These living particles (contagium) having acquired
during multiplication new and peculiar properties not pos-
sessed by the germinal matter from which they originally
sprung, retain these properties and reproduce their kind a
million fold whenever placed under conditions favourable
to the process, though the operation may be fatal to the
organism in which it occurs.
In cells which have been growing very rapidly and are
returning to their normal condition, in which the access of
nutrient pabulum is more restricted than in the abnormal state,
as is also the case in normal cells passing from the em-
bryonic to the fully-formed state, the outer part of the
germinal matter undergoes conversion into formed material,
and this last increases although the supply of pabulum is
reduced.
From these observations it follows that disease may re-
sult in two ways — either from the cells of an organ growing
and multiplying faster than in the normal state, or from
their doing so more slowly. In the one case, the normal
restrictions under which growth takes places are diminished ;
in the other, the restrictions are greatly increased. Pneumonia,
or inflammation of the lung, may be adduced as a striking
64 PROTOPLASM.
example of the first condition, for in this disease millions of
minute masses of germinal matter which have escaped from
the blood suspended in liquor sanguinis (exudation) grow and
multiply very rapidly in the air cells of the lung, and nutrient
constituents are diverted from other parts of the body to this
focus of morbid activity. Contraction and condensation of
the liver, kidney, and other glands, hardening, shrinking,
and wasting of the muscular, nervous, and other tissues, are
good examples of the second. The amount of change
becomes less and less as the morbid state advances, the
whole organ wastes, the secreting structure shrinks, and at
last inactive connective tissue alone marks the seat where
most active and energetic changes once occurred. It is easy
to see how such a substance as alcohol must tend to restrict
the rapid multiplication of the cells when the process is
too active, and how it would tend to promote the advance
of disease in organs where rapid change in the cells charac-
terizes the normal state.
These considerations lead us to conclude that the rate
of growth of cells in disease may be accelerated or retarded
by an alteration in the character of the pabulum which is
transmitted to them, and with the view of influencing these
changes we shall naturally search for remedies which have
the property of rendering tissues more or less permeable
to nutrient fluids, or which alter the character of the fluid
itself. Such considerations have a very important bearing
upon the practical treatment of disease.
Many of the so-called tonics have the property of
coagulating albuminous fluids and solutions of extractive
matters. Preparations containing tannin, the mineral salts,
TREATMENT. 65
such as the sulphate and sesquichloride of iron, nitric and
hydrochloric acids, and a host of other remedies that will
occur to every one, possess this property, and render solu-
tions containing these and allied substances less permeable,
perhaps by increasing their viscidity. The favourable action
of such remedies is probably due to their direct influence
on the fluid constituents of the blood. They, no doubt,
also reduce the rate at which blood-corpuscles are disinte-
grated, and at the same time they tend to render the walls
of the blood-vessels less permeable to fluids.
But, of all remedies, I believe alcohol acts most rapidly
in this way, and in these particular cases most efficiently.
The properties alcohol possesses of hardening animal tis-
sues, and of coagulating albuminous fluids, are well known;
and these properties must not be forgotten when its effects
in the animal body are discussed. Of course, when ab-
sorbed by the blood, it does not actually coagulate the
albuminous matters j but it probably renders them less fluid,
and reduces their permeating property. It prevents the
growth and multiplication of germinal matter and probably
interferes with the multiplication of white blood corpuscles.
Alcohol also tends to prevent the disintegration of red
blood-corpuscles ; and in cases where this is going on very
rapidly, and where fluid is passing through the walls of the
vessels in considerable quantity, in consequence of the walls
themselves being stretched and too readily permeable to
fluids, alcohol is likely to be of service ; but where these
changes are occurring very rapidly, and the patient's strength
is fast ebbing, it may save life.
Alkalies, on the other hand, tend to render formed
F
66 PROTOPLASM.
material more permeable to fluids, and thus facilitate the
access of pabulum to the germinal matter. They are often
useful in cases where there is shrinking and wasting of
textures which in the normal condition consist principally
of germinal matter. Potash, soda, lithia, and their car-
bonates, as well as the salts of many vegetable acids which
become converted into carbonates in the system, act bene-
ficially in this way, as well as by producing favourable
changes of other kinds,
OF "LIFE.'
]HAT is to be understood by the term life: is a
question which has been answered very differ-
ently by different authorities in these days, and
it is one to which a satisfactory reply has never yet been
received. Few words are in more frequent use, and yet
it is most difficult to define the meaning of this word
life, partly no doubt, because it has been used in so many
different senses. By the "life" of the world, of a nation,
or of a society, we mean something very different from what
we mean by the " life" of an individual ; for may not many
individuals perish without the life of the world, of a nation,
or of a society being destroyed or impaired? The "life" of
a man, or an animal, is very different from what is termed
the "life" of a white blood, or of a mucus,, or pus corpuscle ;
inasmuch as many hundreds of white blood corpuscles, or
elemental units of the tissues, might die in the man, without
affecting the " life " of the man ; moreover the man himself
might perish, and some of the corpuscles remain alive.
" Life," as employed in the first instance, comprises a
great number of results and changes so complicated, and so
different from one another, that volumes might be written
without the subject being exhausted. The "life" of a man
or an animal includes phenomena of 'essentially different kinds,
some being mechanical 'and chemical, while others belong to a
F 2
68 LIFE.
totally different category. Physical and chemical actions
may be investigated in many ways, but as far as we can
judge, the last class of actions (vital) seems to be beyond
investigation, and has not yet been satisfactorily accounted
for. If we regard the life of a man, as the sum of all
the actions going on in his body, as some are inclined
to do, the sum will be made up of a number of very
different and heterogeneous items. To sum up these
together and express the result in a common total would be
as unmeaning as it would be to add ounces to shillings
and inches. By the " life " of a white blood corpuscle or
other small mass of living matter we mean the property or
power or conditions to which the phenomena, characteristic
of this and other kinds of matter in the same state, are
referable.
Here then are three distinct senses in which the term
life has been employed, and more might be adduced. It
must, therefore, be obvious that by the life of a man some-
thing very different is understood from what is meant by
the life of each elemental unit of his organism, and the
difference is not merely of degree but of kind.
We cannot prove that life results from, or is invariably
associated with such and such chemical and physical changes,
or is due to certain external conditions, and it is easy to ad-
duce instances in which life is present under opposite and
conflicting circumstances. In short the conditions under
which life exists are so many and so variable that it is not
reasonable to attribute it to any conceivable combinations
of external circumstances unless we may assume that the
very same phenomena result from the concurrence of very
different conditions.
LIFELESS AND LIVING PARTICLES. 69
Non-living Particles of Matter contrasted with Living
Particles. — It is desirable to consider in this place whether
anything may be learnt by comparing very minute lifeless
particles with very minute living particles under very high
magnifying powers.
A little inorganic matter of any kind, but in a state of
very minute subdivision may be subjected to examination.
Take for example a little of the deposit of phosphate of
lime which has been precipitated from a solution of a salt
of lime by the addition of a soluble salt of phosphoric acid.
Now what is observed when this fine precipitate is placed
under the microscope ? Only a number of minute granules
or dots possessing no definite form and exhibiting no indica-
tions of structure. If the deposit be examined by the
highest powers at our command, the apparent size of the
particles will indeed be increased, and others which were
previously invisible will be brought into view but no
appearance of structure can be recognized. Spots they
appeared under moderately high powers, and mere spots
they remain under the highest magnifying powers we can
obtain. Certain movements are however to be observed.
Each little particle revolves and oscillates in the fluid.
These movements have been termed molecular, and were
first described many years ago by Robert Brown. We know
that the particles under observation are inorganic, and we
are therefore quite sure that the movements we witness are
due to physical forces alone.
Next let us take a small fragment of dead animal or
vegetable matter, and place it in a few drops of pure water
on a glass slide, and examine carefully the fluid under the
70 LIFE.
microscope. The water appears as clear "and transparent
as the glass on which it rests. Both slides may now be
placed in a warm room under the same conditions for a few
hours, taking care that light and air have free access to both
specimens, and that any fluid lost by evaporation be sup-
plied. At the end of five or six hours the slides may again
be examined.
The one containing the inorganic deposit of phosphate
of lime shall be called A. No change has taken place.
There are the little lifeless particles still moving as before
in the fluid in which they are suspended. Some of them
indeed may have become aggregated together so as to form
little collections, but beyond this there appears to have been
no change.
Next let the other slide B be examined. The fluid which,
when first seen, was perfectly clear, now contains a number
of exceedingly minute dots, points, or granules, closely
resembling those of the phosphate of lime, and these mani-
fest similar molecular movements. If a little gum, glycerine,
or any viscid material be added to the particles on each
slide, the molecular movements are immediately suspended,
and if the fluid be diluted they recur. This indicates that
in both cases the movements are due to physical causes.
The little particles which could move freely in such a limpid
fluid as water, are prevented from moving if the fluid in
which they are suspended be rendered viscid.
Let both slides be again set aside for a few hours longer.
It will be found that the inorganic matter upon the slide A
has undergone no change. But the case is very different
with regard to B. The granules that have appeared in the
LIVING PARTICLES. 71
fluid, — -precipitated as some would say — have increased
vastly in number. Many of them have become altered, or
their place has been taken by little bodies, some of which
have a circular while others exhibit an elongated oval form ;
all are perfectly transparent. If, again another interval of time
be permitted to elapse, and the slide B is again examined,
it will be found that further change has taken place. The
little bodies have become larger ; in fact they have grown,
and have moreover increased considerably in number. The
growth has not resulted from the aggregation and fusion of
several particles, as some have surmised, but individual par-
ticles have increased in size without absorbing their neigh-
bours. Careful study will now convince the observer that
in the case of the largest particles, the central portion differs
from the external covering ; in fact each particle is com-
posed of at least two kinds of matter, or matter in two dif-
ferent states.
The changes described are characteristic of living par-
ticles. Repeated experiments have proved that the con-
ditions under which slide B was placed were favourable to
the developement of certain simple living organisms. At a
certain period the granules on the two slides were scarcely to
be distinguished ; but while those on A remained unaltered —
retained the same granular form in which they were deposited
— the particles on B have not been stationary for a moment.
They have grown into definite though apparently simple
forms of matter, which still continue to manifest active
changes. In all cases life is associated with never-ceasing
change.
Now, the question arises, whence have the living
72 LIFE.
organisms been derived ? The water which was examined
at first appeared perfectly clear, but now it is filled with
living beings. How did they come there? It has been
stated that simple organisms such as these may spring up
spontaneously; but this statement may be met by very
serious objections, if, indeed, it is not contradicted by facts
open to the observation of all. The doctrine of spontaneous
generation has again quite recently been revived in France,
and of course has been again refuted by an overwhelming
mass of evidence. It has been proved that if dead animal or
vegetable matter be dried, and so placed that the admission of
atmospheric air which has passed through strong sulphuric
acid or liquor potassae is alone admitted, organisms will
nevertheless appear, and all those phenomena which we
have already observed will ensue. The minute germs which
were protected in the interstices of the vegetable matter
become developed into organisms resembling those from
which they were derived. It seems almost impossible to
destroy the germs without destroying the organic matter in
which they were embedded and by which they may have
been protected even from the destructive influence of boil-
ing water.
Some experiments performed by Dr. Wyman seem to
show that bacteria germs which would live in a solution
which had been boiled might be destroyed by being boiled
for six hours or longer.
There is reason for believing that many germs of low
organisms exist which are far too minute and too transparent
to be seen by the aid of the highest magnifying powers at our
command, and that while in this condition rapid multiplica-
CREATURES FORMED PIECE BY PIECE.
73
tion takes place. Gradually the minute particles acquire
body sufficient to enable us to distinguish them from the clear
medium by which they are surrounded. So that it seems
to me the evidence against spontaneous generation increases
in force as our means of investigation are improved. At
the same time it must be admitted that this doctrine is
still supported by some authorities of great repute.
At the conclusion of one of his interesting essays, my
friend Dr. Child* puts a very pertinent question, and asks
why creatures may not be formed piece by piece, " as M.
Pouchet says, out of particles of dead matter, in the way
which he and Schaafhausen and Mantegazza tell us that
they have themselves witnessed ?" To this I should venture
to reply, that, as he is well aware, a host of facts have been
brought forward against the theory, while no good reasons
have been advanced in favour of supposing such a mode of
origin of living forms to be possible. As regards witnessing
such a formation of living beings out of dead matter all
that can be said is, that other observers who have employed
far higher powers than those referred to have never seen
anything of the kind. My own conviction is, that if crea-
tures are ever formed piece by piece out of particles of dead
matter, the operation will never be witnessed by mortals,
and I marvel that any one at all accustomed to careful
microscopical observation could succeed in persuading him-
self that he had actually seen the phenomenon supposed to
have occurred, f I consider the evidence that bacteria are
* "Essays on Physiological Subjects." Second edition. 1869.
P. ill.
f Dr. Child comments very severely on the microscopic observations
74 LIFE.
not formed by the aggregation of particles of lifeless matter
as conclusive aud as irrefragable as the evidence against any
such mode of formation of mice, elephants, or men. Vague
statements about the coalescence of molecules to form
particles of protoplasmic matter, or physical basis of life, are
not convincing. Every one naturally enquires what is the
nature of the molecules alluded to, but he gets no answer.
Of the molecules all, it may be admitted, are complex, but
we are not told how the elements of which they consist are
probably arranged, or what determines the new states of
combination as the protoplasmic substance comes into being.
To any one who has actually studied under the highest
powers of the microscope (3,000 linear and upwards), the
most minute living organisms, and has watched their move-
ments and growth, the statements^ advanced in favour of
spontaneous generation will appear hardly worthy of serious
discussion, because he will feel quite convinced that for a
long while before the living particle which he is able to see
acquired the size and substance necessary to render it
visible, it existed as a more minute and more transparent
yet active and living particle, capable of growing and
multiplying ; and that the act of coming together of non-
living molecules supposed, if it occurs at all, must take
place in particles so very very far beyond the reach of
observation and experiment, as to be quite undemonstra-
ble, if not inconceivable. While, on the other hand, the
further investigation is carried, the more reasons he gains
of M. Pasteur, but he says nothing of the powers employed, or the de-
tails of the microscopic investigations carried out by M. Pasteur's
opponents.
STRUCTURE OF A SPORE OF MILDEW. 75
for believing that the most minute individual particles he sees
resulted from the division and subdivision of already existing
particles. He sees the actual process of division taking place
in hundreds of instances, and in every class of living things,
from the very lowest up to man himself, and, in the absence
of positive demonstration to the contrary, he cannot admit
that any other mode of origin of living organisms of any
kind whatever exists in nature.
It must then be regarded as a fact that living beings
spring from pre-existing living beings, and that there is no
such thing as spontaneous generation. Living forms con-
tinue to exist and to grow so long as the conditions of life
remain favourable, but when these are changed, the or-
ganisms die.
Structure of a Spore of Mildew. — If one of the simple
structures — the microscopic protoplasms such as are repre-
sented in the plate opposite p. i, be examined (a), we shall
find that it is not the same in every part. It consists
externally of a delicate, transparent, glass-like texture, and
within of a material having a faintly granular appearance.
Suppose a little ordinary mildew dust, which is one of the
lowest forms of existence possessing a very simple structure
be examined. The little round bodies which compose it
are larger than those above referred to, and will therefore
suit the purpose of investigation better. Each of these has
a tolerably thick well-defined outline, while the interior is
perfectly transparent. When this transparent matter is ex-
amined under very high magnifying powers, numerous very
minute particles like dots will be observed. Here then are
two parts, the one situated externally, firm, glass like, and
76 LIFE.
arranged so as to form an investing membrane closed at all
points, the other lying within, soft, and exhibiting no form
or structure whatever. Now if these bodies be placed
under favourable conditions certain changes will occur.
Let them be put, for instance, upon the moist surface of a
glass slide, and after a time let the slide be placed under
the microscope. First of all the particles absorb moisture,
and swell up, and the membrane becomes thinner in pro-
portion to the whole mass, and the matter within increases
in amount.
Next a new change is observed at one point in the
membrane. A small orifice is seen, through which a little
of the granular contents of the body, covered with a thin
layer of the inner part of the membrane, makes its way, and
thus a small nodule is formed which projects through the
external membrane. By degrees this assumes a structure
resembling that of the body from which it has proceeded ;
it increases in size; the membrane around it becomes
thicker; its point of attachment becomes less and less, until
at last it is completely separated, and becomes a free and
independent particle, exactly resembling that from which it
sprung, except that it is smaller, and capable of growing and
giving rise to new individuals like itself, by a repetition of the
process by which it was formed.
This is one way in which the particles may multiply,
but there are others. In one of these, too, an orifice forms
in the membrane of the particle of mildew, and a little of
the soft transparent material escapes, but it does not separate
as in the first case ; it remains in connexion with the mass,
and grows out into a narrow thread-like process. The mem-
STRUCTURE OF A SPORE OF MILDEW. 77
brane on the external surface becomes thickened, and the
whole increases in breadth. Within the sheath is found
transparent matter, from which a number of little spherical
bodies or very minute growing particles like those observed
within the spheri car spore may be obtained. It may be
that as this process grows at one or more points a thinning
occurs in its wall, and a portion of its contents coming into
more immediate contact with the pabulum increases in
amount, and thus gives rise to the production of another
branch or process which grows exactly like the first.
Now, how does this simple organism nourish itself?
The materials for its growth and nourishment are certain
inanimate matters (solids and gases) existing dissolved in
fluid in which the organism floats. These materials must
pass into its structure and become part of it. That which
is inanimate must become incorporated with and assume
the properties of living matter. Now if such a living thing
be placed under certain unfavourable conditions its vital
properties will be destroyed. The transparent living matter
in its interior will shrivel up and die, but this will be
attended by no obvious alteration in the external mem-
brane. The part which exhibits form (formed matter)
remains; that which is without form (living matter) is
destroyed.
In the growth of the structure, then, how is the new
matter produced ? Does it take place by deposition upon
the external surface of the investing membrane, or is the
new matter produced by the soft formless matter in the
interior? To put the question still more simply, Is the
capsule, the so-called cell wall, formed by deposition of
7 8 LIFE.
matter from the fluid surrounding it, or is it formed from
within ? and which is the oldest part of the capsule, its
external or internal surface? If the new matter were
deposited upon the external surface, we should expect to
find that the membrane would become thicker and thicker
as the growth of the organism advanced, while the central
portion would remain unaltered. This, however, is not the
case ; on the contrary, we find that as growth proceeds, the
wall in most cases becomes considerably thinned. It is
clear, therefore, that the increase in size cannot be due to
deposition from without. The matter deposited upon the
inner surface of the capsule is always softer than its general
substance, and the external surface of old capsules is
cracked and ragged.
In many of the algae this external surface serves as a
nidus for the development and growth of smaller algae — a
fact which clearly shows it has ceased to be active, is under-
going disintegration, and becoming fitted for the pabulum
of other things, and is no longer capable of resisting the
action of external conditions. This is the oldest part of the
capsule which is now undergoing decay, and the small algae
are living in part upon the products thus produced. The
new material is added upon the inner surface of the capsule,
layer after layer, and where there are several layers the
innermost is the youngest and the outermost the oldest
portion of the structure. If this be so, it follows that the
inanimate material for the nourishment of these structures
must pass through the outer membrane, and be taken up by
the living matter within, which communicates to it the
same properties and powers which this living matter itself
CHEMICAL CHANGES. 79
possesses, and which it has inherited from pre-existing
particles. The nutrition of cells of epithelium of man is
conducted upon the same plan. See p. ST. At present we
cannot get further than this. I am ignorant of the nature
of the changes which occur, but I think the facts as I have
stated them are true.
Is a Tissue living because attached to a Living Organism.
— Some appear to think that a change in position only will
make all the difference as regards the proper application of
the term vital, and seem to hold that a tissue should be
called alive as long as it remains attached to a living body,
dfca^/when detached, irrespective of changes occurring in the
tissue itself. But it is obvious that a leaf, or an elementary
part, may be as devoid of life while it remains attached to
the living trunk as after its connection with it has been
completely severed. To say that a dead leaf exhibits life as
long as it hangs on to the branch would be absurd, because
differences of a much more important character proclaim
whether the leaf be alive or dead, irrespective of its con-
nection with the tree.
Not long ago, it was stated that a living thing might
spring from a dying or dead one, as a fungus from a dead
elm, by mere transference of force from the latter to the
former, — that the departing life-force of one thing became
transformed into the life of the new one, but those who
advocated this view failed to prove that the fungus did not
grow from the germ of a pre-existing fungus, and lived upon
the disintegrating elm as other living things consume other
kinds of pabulum.
Chemical and Mechanical Changes in Living Beings. —
8o LIFE.
Neither should changes which are admitted to be me-
chanical and chemical, when they occur in the laboratory, be
called vital, merely because they take place in a living
organism. It is the nature of the change alone which
determines its vital or non-vital character. But the term
vital is constantly applied to actions which, for the last
fifty years, have been admitted to be mechanical and
chemical, and the confusion with regard to the meaning
of the word has been further increased by the assertion
that mechanical and chemical actions are the only actions
that are to be called vital. Some philosophers have
indeed arrived at the conclusion that in truth there are
no vital as distinguished from physical and chemical actions.
Further, it has been held that as we can imitate osmose,
oxidize certain substances and produce in the laboratory
compounds like those formed in the body, we may pro-
phesy that all other actions occurring in living beings will
eventually be imitated. But it would be as reasonable to
maintain that because we can now produce urea we shall
by and by be able to form a hair or develop an eye put of
the contents of a crucible, or that as we can build up by syn-
thesis very complex organic compounds, ere long we shall
be able to make a brain cell which will form ideas. Because
we can make many products like those resulting from the
disintegration of tissues, does it therefore follow that in the
time to come we shall be able to develop an embryo by
the admixture of two kinds of albuminous fluids prepared
artificially ?
As oxygen and hydrogen can be made to combine
by the contact of platinum, therefore it is said certain
CHEMICAL CHANGES. 8 1
combinations of living particles are also examples of
catalytic action. Because many actions have been attri-
buted to vitality which are unquestionably physical and
chemical, therefore all actions which are now regarded as
vital will ultimately be proved to be physical. Those who
argue in this way fail to perceive that they are dealing with
two different classes or kinds of actions. The truth is physics
and chemistry have never advanced one step in the direc-
tions indicated. . Great things have been done, but iri
altogether different lines of enquiry. Strange as it may
seem many undoubtedly high authorities have for years past
failed to distinguish between the act of construction in the
case of a machine or an organism, and the work performed
by it after its construction is complete. They have failed to
recognize any difference between formation and action, and
have forgotten that before an organ can act or perform its
function, it must be formed, and that its function and mode
of action are in great measure determined by the changes
which occurred during its formation.
The power or force which is concerned in the formation
of an organ endowed with the most exquisite faculties is
supposed to be of the same essential nature as that which
causes certain kinds of matter to assume a definite cry-
stalline form. The formation of organs and structures
designed for the fulfilment of definite purposes which must
have been foreseen, as it were, from the earliest period of
development, is supposed to result from nothing more than
the action and reaction of the properties and forces of the
elements of matter concerned, and the external conditions
to which it is exposed. But it must be borne in mind that
G
82 LIFE.
temporary structures are first produced which are useless in
themselves and only serve as a provisional basis for the
development of the masses of germinal matter from which
permanent structure is to be evolved.
Actions in Living Beings. — A very little observation will
convince us that in the body there are very different kinds
of actions proceeding simultaneously. The formation and
growth of muscular tissue would seem to be processes
essentially distinct from its contraction, and yet both sets
of phenomena have been attributed to the influence of the
same forces. But building up and breaking down — solution
and precipitation — development of structure and its removal
— addition of matter to, and removal of matter from, a
tissue — have been attributed to the operation of the ordinary
forces. But not one of these phenomena as they occur in
living beings can be explained by any known laws of
physics, or imitated artificially.
" There are no truly vital actions," " there is no life,"-
say some, and thus evade further discussion of this mo-
mentous question. But it has been shown that there is a
marked distinction between the living matter and the formed
matter (see p. 34), and that the phenomena going on in
these two kinds of matter respectively are essentially dif-
ferent, and can be considered apart from one another. By
ignoring altogether this and other important facts of obser-
vation, which have been demonstrated of late years, and by
calling those who differ from them " vitalists ;" by saying
that facts opposed to their view are unimportant, and stigma-
tizing every argument against their doctrines as frivolous,
making bold assertions, and under cover of jokes about
FORCE GUIDED BY MATTER. 83
the fiction of vitality, popular teachers may partially suc-
ceed in forcing upon the people the acceptance of dogmas
about force which are really untenable. The interest is
excited by the very forcible and high-sounding terms em-
ployed, but the language is often remarkable for vagueness
and laxity of expression, and conspicuous for its complete
want of precision and clearness of meaning, and the use of
terms that too often beg the question under consideration.
The matter in dispute has, at least as regards my own
observations, been actually misrepresented; for — i. It has
been said that the actions which I have termed vital are
really physical and chemical. 2. The actions to which I
have restricted the term vital (seep. 86), and which occur
in the germinal matter only, have in many instances been
completely ignored.
Force guided by Matter.— But although the new schools
hold it absurd to suppose that any peculiar power acting
from within or from without can influence the changes in
matter, or direct its forces, they see no impropriety in at-
tributing to matter itself, and to force, guiding and directing,
and forming agencies. They transfer to the non-living those
active, controlling, and directing powers which have been
hitherto considered to be limited to the living world.
It is the inorganic molecule, not will, or mind, or power,
which governs, arranges, and guides.
Only recently, Professor Huxley has affirmed that a
"particle of jelly" (protoplasm ?) guides forces.* But
* Mr. Huxley remarks, that to his mind it is a fact of the profound -
est significance that "this particle of jelly (!) is capable of guiding
physical forces in such a manner as to give rise to those exquisite and
G 2
84 PROTOPLASM.
the Professor has not explained what he means by
guiding physical forces. He should have given us some
idea of the property or force by virtue of which this jelly,
this matter, is enabled to guide forces, and how the pro-
perty was acquired. What are the laws which govern it,
and how comes it that physical forces obey matter ; what
is the nature of the act of guiding spoken of? Does every
kind of matter, under certain circumstances, guide forces,
or only certain combinations of matter, or only special kinds
of matter? Is it due to a mere command that is mys-
teriously obeyed, or to some repulsion or attraction, or if
there be a subtle influence, what is the nature of this, and
whence did it come ? Here, as in many other cases, Mr. Hux-
ley makes an assertion which he expects his pupils to receive
without telling them the grounds he has for making it.
No doubt Mr. Huxley feels quite satisfied that what he
states is true. He speaks so authoritatively about fact and
law (" fact I know, and law I know,") that one scarcely
dares to venture to beg for an explanation of anything
Mr. Huxley has affirmed. But students ask if Mr. Hux-
ley's " facts" have been confirmed, and are anxious to learn
something concerning the evidence upon which they are
supposed to rest.
Why should the idea of the jelly guiding forces be a
fact of profound significance, and the idea of " vitality "
acting upon the particles of this jelly, and guiding them
and their forces, be a fiction^ frivolous, absurd, ridiculous,
fanciful, &c. ? Again ; some think that physical forces
almost mathematically arranged structures," &c. — "Introduction to the
Classification of Animals."
JELLY GUIDING FORCES. 85
guide matter, but here we have the new doctrine taught
that matter guides physical forces. But may it not be that
neither matter nor force is capable of guiding or directing
force or matter ?
Mr. Huxley agrees with those who attribute to matter
itself that which has been attributed by others to power
acting upon the matter. One view is, that matter guides
and rules itself of itself; another, that matter is guided and
ruled by something acting upon it.
Concerning the dictum about jelly guiding physical
forces, I shall venture to remark — i. That living matter is
not jelly; 2. That neither jelly nor matter is capable of
guiding or directing forces of any kind ; and 3. That the
capacity of jelly to guide forces, which Professor Huxley
says is a fact of the profoundest significance to him, is
not a fact at all, but merely an assertion.
Living matter is first called a name given to non-living
matter ; then it is asserted that this does so and so, which
it has never been proved to do ; this is next stated to be a
fact of the profoundest significance ; and by such devices
the public is taught to believe in the creative and directing
power of the non-living. Arguments of another kind have
already led many to accept as an article of faith the dogma,
that it is force alone which forms and builds, and designs
and makes; and that the only source of the countless
living things which people this earth is the sun, — " the God
• of this new world."
86 VITALITY.
ACTIONS WHICH CHARACTERIZE EVERY KIND
OF LIVING MATTER, BUT WHICH NEVER OCCUR IN
ANY FORM OF NON-LlVING MATTER.
Let us now proceed to inquire whether there are any
characters or phenomena which are common to all kinds of
matter that lives, and manifested by this only. All living
matter grows, and moves, and forms, of its own accord, while
non-living matter cannot be made to do any of these
things. Hence it is fair to say that growth, spontaneous
movement, and formation are vital phenomena. We cannot
at present conceive of life without a capacity for these phe-
nomena. The actions may remain dormant for a time, but
when circumstances are favourable, they manifest themselves
very distinctly. Although in many cases these vital pheno-
mena may be hidden and obscured by very evident physical
and chemical changes, we shall invariably find evidence of
them. By tracing the various actions in living beings
towards their source, we shall always find that these vitai
actions underlie the rest, and contribute in a most important
measure to the results we are able to observe, study, and
investigate. And as neither growth, spontaneous move-
ment, nor formation, have been imitated artificially, or known
to occur in non-living matter, or proved to result from
physical actions, I attribute these phenomena to vitality,
or vital power or force, or to life, until a more satisfactory
explanation shall be discovered. %
GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 87
New views concerning the vital processes of Growth and
Nutrition* — The act of nutrition is peculiar to living beings
and involves much more than the mere addition of new
particles to a definite portion of matter, as some have held.
Growth resulting from nutrition is so very different in its
essential nature from every kind of increase resulting from
deposition or aggregation, that it seems wrong to apply the
word "growth " to the process of increase in the two cases.
If the term is to be employed at all, with reference to living
things, it should be restricted to them entirely, for a stone
does not grow in the sense a living thing grows. Here,
however, at the outset, I find myself distinctly at issue with
one whose opinions on such questions are entitled to respect.
At the same time I cannot help feeling that if the author in
question had observed more for himself, and trusted less to
the arbitrary dicta and inconclusive statements of others
upon elementary questions of the highest importance, which,
as he well knows, have been very imperfectly worked out,
he would have been led to adopt conclusions at variance
with the doctrines to which he has, I venture to think,
prematurely committed himself. After affirming that the
increase in size of the plant, like the crystal, is effected by
continuously integrating surrounding like elements with
itself, Mr. Herbert Spencer saysf that the food of an
animal is " a portion of the environing matter that contains
some compound atoms like some of the compound atoms
constituting its tissues." If such be so, the peculiar sub-
* The observations under this head formed the subject of a paper
published in the Trans. Mic. Soc., 1867.
t "The Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 108.
88 NUTRITION.
stances of which white fibrous tissue, yellow elastic tissue,
muscle, nerve, epithelium, &c., consist, ought to be present
in the white and yolk of an egg before these have undergone
conversion into the chick ; but we know that not one of
these things can be detected, and, in short, that develop-
ment and growth are processes essentially and absolutely
different from the mere deposition in a solid form of par-
ticles previously held in solution in a fluid. In growth the
substances dissolved in the fluid pabulum are completely
altered in composition and properties. Their elements are
re-arranged. If the elements of the dissolved crystalline
matter were torn asunder and then reunited in a different
way, so as to produce a new substance when deposited in a
solid form, crystallisation would in this one particular accord
with growth ; but there is not even this resemblance. A
crystal, then, does not grow. The fungus-like (!) accumu-
lation of carbon that takes place on the wick of an unsnuffed
candle is not growth. The deposition of geological strata,
the genesis of celestial bodies, are not examples of growth.
I think that if Mr. Herbert Spencer would carefully study
a growing microscopic fungus, he would modify his views
concerning the nature of growth^ and admit that there is an
essential difference between this peculiar process and the
above physical phenomena.
From what has been stated in many physiological works
the student would be led to conclude that the tissue or
formed matter of a living being to be nourished, selected
from a mixed fluid, in consequence of some sort of affinity,
certain constituents adapted for its nutrition, and that those
substances passed at once from a state of solution to the
NATURE OF PROCESS. 89
condition of tissue. But no instance is known in which
any lifeless substance takes up another lifeless substance
differing from it in composition, and converts this last into
matter like itself, as occurs, for example, when a simple
gelatin-yielding texture increases in amount, although sur-
rounded by an albuminous material only in which no trace
of gelatin-yielding substance can be detected.
In the hope of ascertaining the essential nature of the
nutrient process, we must not limit ourselves to the con-
sideration of the phenomena occurring in the fully-formed
organisms of man and vertebrate animals, in which the
nutrient blood plays so important a part; but we must
extend our observation to plants and the lower organisms,
some of which consist of extremely minute independent
masses of matter. Many facts lead to the conclusion that
the nutritive process is, at least in its essential nature, the
same in all cases ; and whatever meaning be assigned to
the term, it ought to apply equally to the lowest simplest
forms and to the highest and most complex.
A simple living organism takes up a quantity of nutrient
matter and increases in weight. Having reached a certain
size portions may be detached, and each of these, after
absorbing nutrient matter, grows and gives rise to others.
In this case the nutrient pabulum is converted into living
matter, and as a result of nutrition there is an enormous
gain in weight. But, on the other hand, living bodies may
take up a considerable quantity of nutrient matter without
altering in weight, and indeed some, in spite of being
well supplied with nourishment, actually lose weight. The
new matter taken up may exactly compensate for old
90 NUTRITION.
material which is removed, or more than compensate for
this : or the process of removal may proceed faster than
the process of nutrition. It is, therefore, obvious that
nutrition cannot be held to mean the mere addition of new
matter to a living body.
Suppose we now consider what actually occurs when
simple living matter, like an amreba, or a white blood-
corpuscle, or a pus-corpuscle, is nourished. Matter either
in a state of solution or capable of being readily dissolved
passes into the matter of which the living body is composed.
Some of the constituents become part of the living body,
while others are given off. The living body then increases
in size. It is nourished and grows. In other instances, as
in many of the lower vegetable organisms, and in the ele-
mentary parts or cells of the higher, a coloured material or
matter having some peculiar properties is formed while the
process of nutrition is proceeding. Now, this matter did
not exist in the pabulum, nor was it to be detected in the
living matter which absorbed the pabulum, but it has
resulted from the death of the living matter under certain
conditions. In this case, then, the pabulum is first changed
into living matter, and the living matter into the coloured or
other formed material. In some instances this formed
material accumulates in the elementary part itself, as in the
case of starch in vegetable cells and fat in animal cells,
and there is a gain in weight. In other cases the formed
material passes away from the germinal matter as fast as it
is produced, dissolved in fluid or in a gaseous state, and no
alteration in weight occurs, although a large quantity of
nutrient matter is taken up.
CONVERSION OF PABULUM. 91
Usually, of the formed material produced, part accumu-
lates on the surface of the germinal matter and part escapes.
Consider what occurs in the nutrition of ordinary yeast.
A layer of cellulose matter which increases by the addition
of new layers to its inner surface is formed externally.
Within this is the transparent living or germinal matter.
When such a particle is nourished, the pabulum passes
through the cellulose wall into the germinal matter, and thus
the substance increases ; but at the same time some of the
germinal matter becomes converted into new cellulose,
which is added to that already existing, and alcohol, water,
and carbonic acid, which escape. The germinal matter
differs from the pabulum, and both differ in physical cha-
racters and chemical composition and properties from the
cellulose envelope. We cannot make the cellulose or the
germinal matter from the pabulum, nor can the pabulum be
obtained, as it was before, from either of the above substances.
How different are all these processes from the mere addition
of matter previously held in solution, as occurs in the
formation of a concretion, or a crystal, which increases by
the superposition of layer upon layer !
Some writers, yielding to the suggestions of fancy and
vague speculation, instead of resting upon the firm ground
of observation and experiment, have endeavoured, without
having at command facts to justify such a conclusion, to
make people believe that there are forms very low in the
scale of living beings which appropriate inorganic materials
only, and which may, therefore, be very similar to the very
first living things which appeared upon the earth, and are,
in fact, according to this view, their direct descendants,
92 NUTRITION.
without divergence or modification ; while, as we ascend
in the scale, we are to recognize creatures more and more
dependent for their existence upon beings below them
which produce the food suitable for the subsistence of their
snperiors. Just as the inorganic and lifeless gradually leads
up to the organic, the living, and the mental, so such
authorities would have us believe, are gradations of perfec-
tion, to be demonstrated as regards the nutritive process.
From the stone that grows by the mere addition of matter
upon its surface, there is a transition to the complex
animal, the elements of whose food must be elaborated,
perhaps, many times by lower and simpler creatures before
the combinations suitable for the nutrition of their tissues
are produced. But this is fiction, and it is fiction of a most
unwarrantable kind, for the "facts" upon which all this
rests are themselves fictions of the imagination. It is not
true that some living things are nourished by inorganic
matter alone, while others can only be nourished by matter
which has been previously elaborated by living beings ; nor
is it true, in any way, that there is a gradation from the
lifeless to the living. The lowest, simplest organisms
require for their nutrition, besides inorganic material, a
certain appreciable proportion of matter which has already
lived ; while, on the other hand, man himself appropriates
water and mineral matters as well as elementary substances
like oxygen, and these are as necessary for the nutrition of
man's body as bread and meat. The chemist who regards
oxygen merely as a substance which combines with certain
constituents of the organism, as it combines with carbon
during combustion, cannot be acquainted with many
FORMATION OF TISSUE FROM BLOOD. 93
physiological facts which render that view untenable in
these days. It would almost seem as if by the " tendency"
of scientific thought, a demand for certain theories of a
certain tendency was from time to time excited. If that
be so, no wonder there should be a good supply of new
fancy facts and observations, for without some such support
the tendency itself would soon lose its vitality.
I propose now to refer briefly to the vital process of
nutrition as it occurs in man and the higher animals. It
has been said that the life of the body is the blood, and it
has been surmised that from this fluid the tissues derive
not only the elements of their nutrition, but the life or the
properties which we call by that name. But it is certain
that the material nutrient pabulum adapted for the nutrition
of the tissues, which the blood contains, is like all nu-
trient matter, lifeless, not living. The actual nutrition,
the act of conversion of the pabulum that was in the blood
into the tissue, is due to actions which occur outside the
vessels, and is altogether independent of the passive nu-
trient fluid. As little supported by facts as the opinion
above alluded to is the doctrine that arterial blood is very
highly nutritious, although a student reading any of our
text books would be led to believe that the highly nutritive
properties of arterial blood had been proved beyond all
question, and that every tissue to be nourished must have
its nutritive artery. The very active nutrition going on in
the lower animals and plants under conditions not favourable
to free oxidation, and the fact that in man and the higher
animals during the early periods of life when nutritive
activity is most remarkable, the blood is not so highly
94 NUTRITION.
oxygenated as at a later time when the nutritive operations
are comparatively slowly carried on, prove that this doctrine
is erroneous.
Every one knows that food nourishes the body, and
that the tissues are nourished by the blood, and it is
generally believed that a high state of nutrition depends
upon a liberal diet. At the same time, however, we know
that the degree of nutrition exhibited by the body is not
dependent merely upon the quantity or quality of the food
introduced into the stomach, and absorbed and converted
into blood, but upon a number of circumstances besides. In
one individual much of the food taken may be excreted in
an altered form soon after it has been introduced into the
system, while in another a large proportion may become
converted into tissue and little pass away. This difference
is determined not by the pabulum, but by the living material
which is destined to take this up, and which is concerned
in the formation of tissue. Some men and some animals
soon become fat upon a diet which to others would be
extremely low \ while certain individuals cannot be made fat,
although supplied with abundance of the choicest and
most fat-nourishing food. We must also bear in mind
that every tissue in the body does not share equally in
the increased nutrition, and although we often talk familiarly
of the increased or diminished nutrition of the body, we refer
for the most part to an increase or diminution of the adipose
tissue, and, though to a much less extent, of the muscular
tissue. At the same time we know that every tissue in the
body is nourished from the earliest period of its existence ;
but that of all the tissues when the organism is fully deve-
INCREASED AND DIMINISHED NUTRITION.
95
loped the adipose and muscular are most influenced by
altered diet. It may be said that the elementary parts of
these tissues exhibit greater variation in activity than those
of other textures. In some men and animals it would
appear that the elementary parts of adipose tissue take up a
larger share of nutrient matter in proportion than those of
other tissues j while, on the other hand, the elementary
parts of the glandular excretory organs are, in other indivi-
duals, the most active. The elements which in the first
would slowly become an integral part of the body, as fat
and other tissues, would in the last quickly escape as
carbonic acid, water, and other substances, in the excre-
tions. It is not possible to say why one set of tissues
should be most active in one individual, and another set in
another individual, any more than we can explain why a
particular kind of food, which is most easily assimilated by
one person or animal, should be useless or injurious to
another.
As there are in the body many different tissues to be
nourished, and many different substances in the blood
which may nourish them, it is necessary to consider what
particular constituents of the blood are principally con-
cerned in the nutrition of the different textures. The
opinion seems to have been very generally entertained that
certain substances in the blood were destined for the nutri-
tion of particular tissues, while other textures, it was sup-
posed, selected from the fluid, constituents of a different
character; for instance, it has been maintained that the
red blood-corpuscles were specially concerned in the nutri-
tion of the nervous and muscular tissues, while the white
9 6 NUTRITION.
blood-corpuscles nourished the fibrous textures — that fat
selected fatty matter from the blood, muscle fibrinous
material, and so on, but these notions are not supported by
facts more recently demonstrated.
In a paper which I communicated to the Microscopical
Society in 1 864, I endeavoured to show that the blood, like
the tissues, might be looked upon as composed of germinal
or living matter, and formed material. The white blood-
corpuscles and smaller corpuscles, probably of similar cha-
racter, which last I showed were to be detected in the
the blood, consist of germinal matter ; while the red blood-
corpuscles, the albumen, and some other constituents, are
to be regarded as formed material, being composed of non-
living matter, possessing, it may be, peculiar characters,
properties, and chemical composition, but resulting from
changes taking place in pre-existing germinal matter. Tr^e
white blood-corpuscles, therefore, are themselves composed
of living matter, which is nourished, and they cannot, as
white blood-corpuscles contribute to the nutrition of any
tissues whatever. Living matter never nourishes living
matter^ although, of course, the products resulting from the
death of many forms of living matter do so in an eminent
degree.
With regard to the red blood-corpuscles, it seems to me
probable that they play a highly important part in equal-
ising the temperature in all parts of the body, taking away
heat from parts whose temperature is above the normal
standard, and distributing heat to textures which are colder
than they should be. At the same time it must be borne
in mind that the red blood-corpuscles themselves are
PAB UL UM IN BLOOD. 9 7
gradually undergoing disintegration ; and although it seems
most probable that the constituents resulting from their
decay are eliminated from the body in the form of urinary,
biliary, and other excrementitious matters, it is most likely
that some of the products take part in nutrition.
Upon the whole, however, it seems probable that the
constituents which form the pabulum of the tissues are
those which are contained in the serum of the blood ; and
it is impossible to conceive how minute quantities of pabu-
lum prone to undergo rapid change could be more perfectly
and equally distributed to the textures, without its com-
position being materially changed, than in the form of the
very thin layers which each red blood-corpuscle carries
upon its surface, and smears, as it were, upon the walls of
the capillary vessel in intimate relation with the tissue.
The arrangement is such as to reduce to a minimum the
chances of alteration in the composition of the nutrient
fluid as it traverses the vessels in different parts of the
body.
From a careful consideration of the facts, I cannot help
drawing the inference that the serum is the pabulum ; that
the red-blood corpuscles are concerned in its distribution,
and in preventing changes in the composition of the great
mass of the blood, as certain constituents are removed from
it or -poured into it ; and that the white blood-corpuscles
are masses of germinal matter concerned in the formation
of the serum, as well as of the red blood-corpuscles. In
support of this view, I would venture to direct attention to
the following points : —
i st. That fibrous tissue, shell, cartilage, muscular and
H
98 NUTRITION.
nervous textures — the two last as perfect and, as far as we
can make out, far more delicate, elaborate, and beautiful
than any of the tissues of vertebrate animals — are formed,
and with wonderful rapidity, in many of the lower creatures
quite destitute of a nutrient fluid containing bodies corre-
sponding to the red blood-corpuscles of the vertebrate
blood ; and that in all these cases the nutrient fluid is clear,
transparent, colourless, and contains a substance closely
allied to the albumen of serum, if not identical with it.
Different plants and animals may produce from the same
pabulum, and apparently under similar conditions, very
different substances ; and the different kinds of germinal
matter in the body of one of the higher animals give rise
to formed matters differing widely in structure, chemical
composition, and properties.
2nd. That in man and the higher animals the develop-
ment of the tissues corresponds to the period of life when
the blood is not remarkable for the number or perfection of
its red blood-corpuscles.
3rd. That certain morbid growths appear and increase
rapidly in cases in which the blood has for some time con-
tained a very small proportion of red blood-corpuscles.
It seems, therefore, probable that the substances taking
part in the nutrition of all the different textures of the
body are furnished by the albuminous matter of the serum,
and that the production of muscle, nerve, fibrous tissue, &c.,
depends not so much upon the characters of the pabulum
supplied as upon the converting powers of the germinal or
living matter which appropriates this. The substances
formed by germinal matter depend upon its vital powers
TISSUE NOT DEPOSITED FROM BLOOD.
99
and the conditions under which these cease to be manifested,
rather than upon the presence of particular substances in
the papulum itself. Different kinds of germinal matter
have power to rearrange the elements of the very same
pabulum supplied to them, in different ways, so that one
kind of germinal matter produces muscle, another nerve,
another fibrous tissue, and so on ; each of these tissues,
and, of course, the pabulum itself, containing oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and some other elements, — but
differently combined and differently arranged.
Athough the opinion is still entertained by many ana-
tomists that tissue — as, for example, the intercellular sub
stance of cartilage — is deposited directly from the blood, no
one has explained by what means the composition of the
pabulum becomes so changed as it passes through the
walls of the vessels to be distributed between the masses
of germinal matter. On the other hand, the facts ad-
vanced by me several years ago in favour of the view that
every kind of formed material passes through the state or
stage of germinal matter have not been overthrown. The
existence of germinal matter before the production of the
formed material of cartilage and all other tissues ; the con-
tinuity of the germinal matter with the formed material in
tissues in process of development ; the circumstance of no
case being known in which formed material is produced
without germinal matter ; and the demonstration that fluids
will pass through a comparatively thick layer of formed
material, and reach the germinal matter in the course of a
few seconds, have forced upon me the conviction that
pabulum invariably passes to the germinal matter, and some
H 2
ioo NUTRITION.
of its constituents, undergo conversion into this active
living substance, and acquire its properties and powers, —
portions of the germinal matter from time to time losing
their original vital properties, and undergoing conversion
into lifeless formed material.
So far, then, it would seem that in the process of
nutrition pabulum passes into living germinal matter, and is
converted into this substance. The formed material or
tissue which, in many cases, constitutes the chief increase
in weight and bulk, has all passed through the state of ger-
minal matter. The formation of this germinal matter from
the pabulum is therefore the important part of the process,
but it is one most difficult to investigate, if indeed it be
not altogether beyond the province of investigation.
It is most interesting to inquire by what means the
soluble pabulum is caused to pass into the germinal matter.
No form of attraction or affinity that we are acquainted with
will account for the passage of pabulum towards and into
the germinal matter. The question is one upon which I
have ventured to speculate. The tendency which every
mass of germinal matter exhibits to divide into smaller por-
tions, each part appearing to move away from other portions,
suggests the idea of there being some centrifugal force in
operation. This moving away of particles from a centre
will necessarily create a tendency of the fluid around to
move towards the centre ; I think, therefore, that the
nutrient pabulum is, as it were, drawn in by centripetal cur-
rents, excited by the centrifugal movements of the particles
of the living germinal matter. How is it that vitality gives
to matter the power of moving away from centres I cannot
NA TURE OF NUTRITION. i o i
even attempt to explain. That this is so, is rendered pro-
bable by many general facts, open to the observation of all,
as well as by the wonderful phenomena seen with the aid of
the highest powers of our microscopes.
The point in which every nutritive operation differs
essentially from every other known change is this : the com-
position and properties of the nutrient matter are completely
altered, its elements are entirely rearranged, so that com-
pounds which may be detected in the nutrient matter are no
longer present when this has been taken up by the matter
to be nourished. The only matter capable of effecting such
changes as these is living matter, and it is very remarkable
that when this matter ceases to live, we do not detect
amongst the compounds formed at its death substances pre-
viously present in the pabulum, but new bodies altogether,
and these often vary according to the circumstances under
which the matter dies.
Desiring as I do to yield all that can be yielded to those
who maintain that there is no vital power distinct from
ordinary force, I might say that a particle of soft transparent
matter, called by some living, which came from a pre-exist-
ing particle, effected, silently and in a moment, without appa •
ratus, with little loss of material, at a temperature of 60° or
lower, changes in matter, some of which can be imitated in
the laboratory in the course of days or weeks by the aid of
a highly skilled chemist, furnished with complex apparatus
and the means of producing a very high temperature and
intense chemical action, and with an enormous waste of
material. It is, therefore, quite obvious that an indepen-
dent, thoughtful person, must, for the present, hold that the
102 NUTRITION.
operations by which changes are effected in substances by
living matter, are in their nature essentially different from
those which man is obliged to employ to bring about changes
of a similar kind out of the body ; and until we are taught
what the agent or operator in the living matter really is, it is
surely permissible to call it vital power. Its actions cannot
be denied and ought not to be ignored.
It seems to me childish, rather than philosophical, on the
part of any one to reassert in these days that nutrition is
merely a chemical process, unless he can imitate by
chemical means the essential phenomena which take place
when any living thing is nourished. The passage of a fluid
through a tissue by which its structure is preserved is not
nutrition, or the introduction of preservative fluids into dead
tissues would be a nutritive operation. A fluid may hold in
solution certain substances which are separated from it as it
traverses the tissue, thus adding weight and altering the
properties of the tissue, as occurs when calcareous and other
slightly soluble substances are deposited in the soft matrix of
bone, teeth, shell, and other textures. This is a process which
can be made to take place in lifeless matter, and has been
adduced in support of the doctrine that the tissues of plants
and animals are formed by physical and chemical agencies
only ; but it is not nutrition. Those who advance such
arguments confuse the process of deposition of insoluble
salts in a material previously formed, with the actual forma-
tion of the material itself out of substances of a totally
different composition.
Nutrition, then, involves the conversion of lifeless pabu-
lum into living germinal matter, and comprises these steps.
VITALITY.
1. The contact of the soluble pabulum with the ger-
minal matter.
2. The separation of the elements of the nutrient
substance from their state of combination as pabulum.
3. The rearrangement of the elements, and the con-
version of some of these into new germinal matter.
Nutrition is impossible unless living germinal matter be
present, and in every case in which it is known to occur new
germinal matter is produced. Nutrition is a vital process,
its occurrence is positive evidence of vitality, and nothing
like it has ever yet been effected by human ingenuity.
OF VITALITY.
How are we to explain the wonderful changes which
take place in the germinal or living matter, and how are we
to account for the capacity which this exhibits of passing
through orderly series of changes, the last of which seems
to have been provided for, and, as it were, anticipated from
the very first ?
I regard "vitality" as a power of a peculiar kind,
exhibiting no analogy whatever to any known forces. It
cannot be a property of matter, because it is in all respects
essentially different in its actions from all acknowledged
properties of matter. The vital property belongs to a
different category altogether.
That the properties of elements which disappear, or
are changed when compounds are formed, are really re-
tained, can be proved, because when each element is again
isolated it manifests its elemental properties ; but the vital
104
VITALITY.
properties are lost whenever living matter dies, and are
never regained by those same particles. The vital actions
of the highest and lowest known forms of living mat-
ter appear to be of the same essential nature, although
the results of vital actions upon the form, properties, and
composition of the material produced are very different
in different organisms. But between the vital actions of the
simplest and most degraded forms of living matter, and any
actions that are known to occur under the most complex
circumstances, in non-living matter, there appears to be no
analogy whatever. Instead of attributing the phenomena
peculiar to living beings to any force or power of a peculiar
or special kind, it is considered more in accordance with
the " tendencies " of scientific investigation in these days,
and much more philosophical to assert that the phenomena
which I have called vital are the consequences of antece-
dent physical phenomena.
When one portion of a mass of living matter is seen to
move in advance of other portions it may be said that the
movement is due to some phenomenal alteration which
occurred just before. But what evidence have we that this
change, which cannot be rendered evident to our senses,
was really phenomenal '? This movement is one of the
essential attributes of living matter. We cannot conceive of
living matter without the capacity for such movement. The
growth of the forest could no more be accomplished with-
out this wonderful power of movement which overcomes
the attraction of gravitation, than the changes in form of
the simplest living particles, or the active movement of the
vibrio or the vibration of a cilium. The visible changes
VITAL PHENOMENA.
which occur in the form of a mass of germinal or living
matter undoubtedly succeed and are a consequence of
antecedent changes, but what do we know about these ante-
cedent changes ? All we have learnt positively is that the
matter moves in a manner peculiar to matter of this kind.
Shall we account for the movement by saying — that it is a
consequence of antecedent phenomena — or that it is due to
an inherent tendency to move — or to a property which it has
derived from matter like it from which it came — or to some
mysterious agency acting from without or from within, or to
the action and reaction of forces acting in both directions ?
It is not possible to prove why the matter moves because we
have no means of investigating its state just prior to the
occurrence of the actual movement, but the universality of
this movement in the living world convinces us that it is of
the highest importance and very intimately related to life
itself. This movement has been shown to be peculiar, and
so far has not been excited in any form of non-living matter.
Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the condition
which immediately precedes the occurrence of actual move-
ment is also peculiar to living matter ? But is it a phenomenal
change ? Some action, state, or condition, must undoubt-
edly take place in the matter just prior to movement,
differing from the condition or state which obtains in the
living matter when no movement is about to occur, but we
cannot demonstrate any difference whatever ; neither have
we yet been able to discover any means by which the state
of change just preceding active movement can be dis-
tinguished from the state of ordinary and comparative rest.
We do not in fact know when a movement is about to
io6 VITALITY.
occur, we only know the fact of its occurrence. If the
state just preceding movement is to be attributed to ante-
cedent phenomena, the state of rest might with equal pro-
priety be attributed to the very same antecedent phenomena.
It is doubtful if the word phenomenon is at all applicable
to the supposed change in the relations of the particles of
living matter which results in actual movement. Is it
correct to speak of a condition or state which cannot be
rendered evident to the senses, as a phenomenon? A
certain change common to every kind of living matter
occurs just prior to the movement of its particles, which
universally distinguishes this from every other known state
of matter. As the movement is peculiar, its cause must be
peculiar, and it seems more reasonable to attribute this to
some peculiar power manifested by living matter only, than
to an antecedent phenomenon which is different in its
essential nature from every other action or change to which
the term phenomenon has been applied. In truth, when
we enter upon the consideration of the 'cause of the
changes in living matter, we soon get beyond the limits of
observation and experiment. It may of course be said that
such discussions are therefore futile and out of the province
of science. But if this view be accepted we must cease to
enquire almost as soon as we have commenced to in-
vestigate. In that case the consideration of the growth,
formation and action of the simplest being, and of every
elementary unit entering into the formation of the tissues
of every living creature, must be as a sealed book. And
it would be absurd to attempt to describe the processes
of growth, formation and secretion, as they occur in living
VITAL PHENOMENA. 107
beings. The question not only lies at the very root of
physiology, but forces itself upon our consideration at every
step. It must, therefore, be discussed, and provisional
hypotheses may be advanced if only to mark the paths
already traversed in the course of our difficult and never-
ending exploration.
That the physical school should try to stop all enquiry
at this very point is exactly what might be expected, for
the subject is obviously out of the path of physical enquiry,
but it by no means, therefore, follows that nothing is to be
learnt concerning it. No wonder that those who would
have us believe that the highest aspirations of the soul are
but manifestations of so many units of force, desire to
chain the mind so tightly to the material that it shall
no longer exercise one of its remarkable endowments —
that of stretching towards regions into which the senses
cannot penetrate. Is the mind to follow the senses,
instead of leading, controlling, and directing them? Are
the senses to govern the intellect and to dictate to it the
conditions under which it may work ? But even the dis-
ciples of the physical school cannot altogether refrain from
advancing vain speculations and fanciful hypotheses. Is it
then the attempt to speculate in one particular direction
that gives such offence in these days, and which some try
to put down, with firmness and force ? The new school
professes to consider all enquiries worthless which are not
conducted by experiment and observation, and yet how many
obscure and doubtful facts of observation and experiment
are advanced and used as scientific certainties, when the
magic light of physical theory has been projected upon
Io8 LIFE.
them ? It is indeed very desirable to bring us face to face
with " facts," but it is astonishing how many grand facts of
the profoundest significance are slowly resolved into harm-
less fictions of the imagination condensed and duly con-
centrated into very strong language to suit the dictates of
a party determined to make people think in one way only,
or to prevent them from thinking at all. But the autho-
ritative language of opponents need not deter us from
entering upon the discussion of a matter which is of
more than ordinary interest to all, and I shall venture to
draw certain conclusions concerning the probable nature of
life ; although I can only receive indirect assistance from
observation and experiment.
There is in living matter nothing which can be called a
mechanism, nothing in which structure can be discerned.
A little transparent colourless material is the seat of these
marvellous powers or properties by which the form, struc-
ture, and function of the tissues and organs of all living
things are determined. But this transparent material pos-
sesses a remarkable power of movement, which has been
already referred to (see p. 39). It may thus transport
itself long distances, and extend itself so as to get through
pores, holes, and canals too minute to be seen even with
the aid of very high powers. There are creatures of
exquisite tenuity which are capable of climbing through
fluids and probably through the air itself — creatures which
climb without muscles, nerves or limbs — creatures with
no mechanism, having no structure, capable when sus-
pended in the medium in which they live, of extend-
ing any one part of the pulpy matter of which they
OF A LIVING SPHERULE. 109
consist beyond another part, and of causing the rest to
follow; as if each part willed to move and did so, or
moved in immediate response to mandates operating upon
it from a distance, governed by some undiscovered, and at
present unimagined laws, — creatures which multiply by sepa-
rating into two or more parts without loss of substance, or
capacity, or power. It would seem that each part pos-
sessed equal powers with the whole, for the smallest particle
detached may soon grow into a body like the original mass
in every respect ; and the process may be repeated infinitely
without any loss or diminution in capacity or power. It
may be asked if there is anything approaching this oc-
curring within the range of physics or chemistry.
Of a Living Spherule. — Let us imagine we could
look into the ultimate particles of the living, active,
moving matter, and consider what we should probably
discern. I think we should see spherules of extreme
minuteness, each composed of still smaller spherules,
and these of spherules infinitely minute. Such spherules
have upon their surface a small quantity of matter differ-
ing in properties from that in the interior, but so soft
and diffluent that the particles may come into very close
proximity. In each little spherule the matter is in active
movement, and new minute spherules are being formed in
its central part, and these are making their way outwards
so as to give place for the formation of new ones, which
are continually appearing in the centre of every one of
the living particles. The rate of growth of the entire
mass varies with the rate at which the new particles are
evolved in the centre.
IIO VITALITY.
Each spherical particle is free to move in fluid, and the
intervals between the particles are occupied by fluid. This
fluid contains, in solution, —
1. Matter about to become living;
2. Substances which exert a chemical action, but do
not necessarily form a constituent part of the living mass,
together with particles which are rejected, and not capable
of being animated ; and
3. Substances resulting from the changes ensuing in
particles which have arrived at the end of their period of
existence, and the compounds formed by the action of
oxygen upon these.
There can be no doubt that the smallest particle of
living matter is complex. It is impossible to conceive
the existence of a living particle of any simple substance
like iron, oxygen, nitrogen, &c. ; for living involves changes
in which several different elements take part. It seems
to me, therefore, that the term living atom cannot with
propriety be employed, seeing that living matter is of
complex composition, while the idea of an atom seems to
nvolve simplicity of constitution, if not indivisibility. The
whole question of the arrangement and form of the atoms
in living matter can at present only be discussed theoreti-
cally ; and I would now merely remark with reference to
this subject, that although all living particles are of complex
composition, many different elements may exist in very
different proportions in living matter; and that there is
reason to believe that the smallest particles of every kind of
living matter are spherical. It is not possible to see, with
the highest powers now made, particles which would in all
CENTRIFUGAL MO VEMENTS. 1 1 1
probability be demonstrable by more perfect glasses. But
there is reason to think that in any case we must fail to see
the actual particles, which are the seat of change, in con-
sequence of their extreme tenuity and transparency. There
must, indeed, be centres more central than the most remote
spots which can be rendered evident to the senses, and it
is not possible to conceive an actual centre. The most
minute molecule must be compound to its very centre, and
yet the resolution of complex matter into their elements
must take place, and the re-arrangement of these in a new
manner must occur in the central part of every molecule
of which every mass of living matters consists. The
further consideration of this question is of the deepest
interest ; but the inquiry assumes a too purely speculative
character for me to pursue it here, as I am anxious not to
diverge very far from the consideration of matters which
may be investigated by observation and experiment. It
seems, however, to me probable that the wonderful changes
occurring when inanimate matter becomes living, which
occur in living beings alone, take place in the central part
of the spherical particles of germinal matter only. Dis-
cussions as to the nature of the vital forces must, I think,
therefore be confined to the consideration of the changes
which take place in those minute living spherules of which
there is reason to believe we can only see some which are
comparatively of large size, and probably many series re-
moved from their ultimate spherical components.
Centrifugal Movement of Living Particles. — Movement
takes place in the most minute living particles in a direc-
tion from centre to circumference, while the inanimate matter
II2 VITALITY.
which is about to become living passes in the opposite di-
rection (see p. 47) ; or, in other words, the inanimate matter
passes into the centre of a particle which already lives,
becomes living, and then moves outwards. The flow of the
inanimate matter is centripetal, and the movement of the
living matter is centrifugal. But both sets of movements
are to be accounted for by the centrifugal tendency of the
living matter ; for it is obvious that as it thus tends to move
from a centre, a flow in the opposite direction must be
induced. Such tendency to move from a centre, it would
seem, must be due to a force very different from that which
controls the movements of inanimate matter. Moreover,
while cosmical force influences masses of the largest magni-
tude and of infinite minuteness, through varying distance, the
vital forces can only exert their sway when the distance is
infinitely short ; and it would seem that this influence can
only affect matter which has arrived at the very centre of the
living particle.
New Centres not formed by Aggregation. — It cannot
be supposed that the new centres of living matter are
in any way formed by the aggregation of particles derived
from distant parts ; for, if this were so, these living
particles must have traversed formed material, and passed
to the very centre of the living germinal matter. But we
have ample evidence to prove that the movement of living
particles is in one direction only, from and not towards
centres. Moreover, there is reason to think that the only
matter passing towards centres is dissolved non-living
pabulum, and if living particles were suspended in this, they
would be filtered off by the formed material, and would never
AL TERA TION IN VITAL PO WER. T 1 3
reach the living matter. The arrangement is such as to
permit fluid only to go to the living matter, and check the
passage of all insoluble particles of whatever kind. While,
if we admitted as possible the aggregation of millions of
particles having different properties and powers, we should
still be quite unable to explain how it was that they did
not interfere with one another's interests ; why, for instance,
the most vigorous did not grow at the expense of their
weaker brethren, starving them by appropriating their
pabulum, destroying them utterly, and occupying the space
which they had not the strength to retain.
Alteration in Vital Power. — It is remarkable that
the results of the act of living in different masses of
germinal matter having the same origin should be very
different. And in the development of new centres one
within the other, the masses last produced seem to have
acquired powers which their progenitors did not possess.
In the formation of the ovum itself the production of
centre within centre proceeds for a long time before the
actual mass from which the new being is to be evolved
is produced. On the other hand, thousands of masses
of germinal matter are formed during the early periods of
development, which apparently only serve the purpose of
giving origin within themselves to others from which those
which are to take part in the formation of tissues are at
length developed. Thus, many successive series of masses
of germinal matter are formed, and are succeeded by new
ones before those by which the tissue or organ is to be
formed are produced. And these result from the develop-
ment of new centres or nuclei within already existing
I
H4 VITALITY.
living matter. Each successive series of nuclei seems to
acquire new power, although there are no characters by
which it could be distinguished from any pre-existing or suc-
ceeding series. That there is a difference is, however,
proved by the difference in the results of living. Moreover,
at the same time that the new centre acquires new powers,
it retains by inheritance some of those possessed by the
germinal matter that preceded it, and hands these down to
the new centres it originates. It would, therefore, appear
more in accordance with the facts to conclude that the
powers exhibited by the last of a series of masses of germinal
matter were somehow retained in relation with the matter
of every one of its predecessors, and thus handed down
from generation to generation, than to assume that the new
powers were acquired in consequence of the different series
being successively exposed to different external conditions.
But this last view is really untenable, because we have
abundant evidence of the transmission of peculiar pro-
perties and powers, through a vast number of successive
units during a considerable period of time, and though
sometimes dormant for a while, they are yet at last mani-
fested so distinctly that no doubt could be entertained as
to their actual transmission from particle to particle.
Increased Action. — Increase in formative and constructive
power seems to be associated with the most limited change
in germinal matter, while rapid change — increased vital
action — seems to be invariably connected with decadence
in power. How can such phenomena be in any way due
to the influence of the ordinary forces associated with
lifeless matter ? No form or mode of force yet discovered
INCREASED VITAL ACTION. 115
has been known to act in any way at all analogous to
this. The results must, therefore, be attributed to some
peculiar power capable of controlling and directing both
matter and force.
It has been suggested that the different substances and
different structures produced by germinal matter at different
periods of development may depend upon the different
surrounding conditions present when the changes occur.
This, however, is no explanation at all, for the surrounding
conditions to which a mass of living matter in a growing
organism is exposed, as well as the circumstances con-
cerned in the production of these, are complex. They are
not simple external conditions, but are in part the result of
external circumstances, and in part of a previous state of
things in the establishment of which pre-existing vital
powers, associated with germinal matter, played no unim-
portant part. It has been shown that the production of
formed matter is due to the death of living matter under
certain conditions, which is itself a highly complex phe-
nomenon, and cannot be explained without supposing —
1. Certain internal forces capable of causing the elements
of the matter to arrange themselves in a certain definite
manner totally different from that in which the ordinary forces
of matter would cause these elements to be arranged ; and
2. Certain influences operating from without (i.e., surround-
ing external conditions) tending to prevent the supposed
internal forces from exerting their sway. The composition,
structure and properties of the matter produced, must, it
seems to me, be referred to the influence of these different
antagonistic forces acting upon matter in opposite directions.
I 2
ll6 LIFE.
All this, which takes place in all living particles, seems
very different from anything going on in non-living matter.
Hypothesis of Vital Force. — It seems to me that the
facts cannot be accounted for except on the hypothesis
of the existence of some force or power which influences,
in a manner we do not yet understand, the ultimate
elements, or the compound molecules, and causes them
to take up particular relations to one another, so that
when they combine, compounds possessing special cha-
racters shall be formed. For, surely it cannot be
maintained that the atoms arrange themselves, and devise
what positions each is to take up, — and it would be yet
more extravagant to attribute to ordinary force or energy,
atomic rule and directive agency. We might as well try to
make ourselves believe that the laboratory fire made and
lighted itself, that the chemical compounds put themselves
into the crucible, and the solutions betook themselves to
the beakers in the proper order, and in the exact propor-
tions required to form certain definite compounds. But
while all will agree that it is absurd to ignore the chemist in
the laboratory, many insist upon ignoring the presence of
anything representing the chemist in the living matter which
they call the "cell-laboratory." In the one case the chemist
works and guides, but in the other it is maintained, the life-
less molecules of matter are themselves the active agents in
developing vital phenomena.
Some have taught that mind transcends life, and life
transcends chemistry, just as chemical affinity transcends
mechanics. But no one has proved, and no one can prove,
that mind and life are in* any way related to chemistry and
VITAL POWER. II7
mechanics. If the step from mechanics to chemistry is
known, has been proved, and is admitted, that from chemistry
to life is assumed, and assumed without the slightest
reason. If it had been shown that there was some sort of
relation between A and B, and another sort of relation
between C D, would any one venture to argue that, there-
fore, B and C must be related ? Neither can it be said that
life works with physical and chemical forces, for there is no
evidence that this is so. On the other hand it is quite
certain that life overcomes, in some very remarkable and
unknown manner, the influence of physical forces and
chemical affinities. Does the tree grow away from the
earth or its roots into it, in obedience to the laws of gravi-
tation? Are certain things taken up from the soil and
others rejected, or do the leaf cells tear away from carbonic
acid its carbon, and drive off its oxygen by reason of
chemical affinity ? Of course, it will be said that capillary
attraction, osmose and other forces, contribute in a highly
complex manner to bring about the results; but every one
at all acquainted with the subject knows, that the facts have
not been, and cannot be explained. Such questions are
usually evaded by those who profess to explain them.
I ask for one single instance in which the phenomena
actually occurring in any living thing, or in a particle of
living matter, can be adequately explained by physics and
chemistry. The only answer I get is, that if the pheno-
mena cannot be explained now, it is certain they will be at
no very distant period. One must, however, acquire pro-
digious physical faith before one can hope to believe that
prophetic physics and cherhistry are as worthy of acceptance
Il8 VITALITY.
and as convincing to the reason as facts of observation and
experiment.
If the explanation of the facts by calling in the aid of
some agency, force, or power totally distinct from ordinary
force is unsatisfactory, is it not more unsatisfactory, nay, is
it not even false, to attribute them to the action of the
ordinary cosmical forces, concerning which much is known,
but which have never been proved to be capable of effect-
ing any changes at all like those which occur in every kind
of living matter?
And it would surely be more in accordance with the
true spirit of science, at least while our knowledge remains
very imperfect, to study still more carefully the phenomena
of the simplest known forms of living matter than to affirm
boastingly, that not only these phenomena but those mani-
fested by the highest form living matter is known to
take, undoubtedly, result from the influence of mere force
which never made a brick or formed a wheel, but yet is
held capable of constructing those most wonderful and most
beautiful mechanisms which could never have been con-
ceived by the most vivid imagination, but which are being
revealed to us in new multitudes day by day in glorious
perfection. Surely, these no more result from the fortuitous
or force-impelled aggregation of atoms than pictures, statues,
mills, or ships do.
If, then, we take a general survey of the phenomena
peculiar to living things, I think we shall find ourselves
compelled by the facts to accept some such inferences as
the following : —
VITALITY. II9
In all living beings there exists matter in a peculiar
state which we call living. This living matter manifests
phenomena which are different from any phenomena proved
to be due to the operation of any known laws. It moves in
a manner which cannot be explained by physics. Changes
are effected in its composition which cannot be accounted
for, and various substances are formed by it which may
exhibit structure, properties, and a capacity for acting in a
manner which is peculiar to living beings, and cannot be
imitated artificially or satisfactorily explained. It takes
up non-living matter in solution, and communicates its
wonderful properties to it. Having increased to a certain
size, the mass of living matter divides into smaller portions,
every one of which possesses the same properties as the
the parent mass, and in equal degree.
Scientific investigators have hitherto failed to discover
any laws by which these facts may be accounted for. But
rather than ignore or misrepresent them, or affirm anything
concerning them which we cannot prove, as some have
done, it seems to me preferable to resort provisionally to
hypothesis. In order to account for the facts, I conceive
that some directing agency of a kind peculiar to the living
world exists in association with every particle of living
matter, which, in some hitherto unexplained manner, affects
temporarily its elements, and determines the precise changes
which are to take place when the living matter again comes
under the influence of certain external conditions.
In higher animals, besides giving rise to the phenomena
above referred to every instant during life in every part of
the organism, this supposed agency or power, acting under
120 LIFE.
certain circumstances at an early period of development, so
disposes the material which it governs, that mechanisms
result of most wonderful structure, at any rate admirably
adapted, if they have been actually designed, for the fulfilment
of definite purposes. These mechanisms were anticipated,
as it were, from the earliest period, and their formation
provided for by the preparatory changes through which the
structures had to pass before perfect development could be
attained. Can these phenomena be accounted for except
through the influence of some wonderful power or agency
such as we are now contemplating ?
Of all organic mechanism, the most perfect, the most
exalted, and as regards mere structure the most elaborate,
is the nervous. Widely diffused, intimately concerned in
the actions going on in various tissues, and co-extensive
with most of these, it sends filaments to the very confines
of the organism. Through this mechanism alone, the very
last to be perfected, external changes affect the peculiar
form of living matter with which it is in the closest relation,
and are thus rendered evident to the living being. The
changes occurring in the central living matter of the
nervous apparatus may give rise to secondary, combined,
and complex actions, through which various ends may be
accomplished. These internal impulses are themselves the
movements of the particles of the living matter induced by
the supposed vital power or agency acting upon them.
In animals yet higher in the scale of creation, the
nervous mechanism through which alone the vital power
influences other tissues, so as to give rise to associated and
combined acts, is still more perfect and elaborate ; but it is
VITAL POWER. i2i
formed according to and acts upon the same principles.
Actions most complex are carried out through the influence
of what is ordinarily termed will. This is essentially related
to life itself, and probably is the vital force or power of
certain kinds of living matter. But it must not be supposed
that vital phenomena are due to will alone, for in all cases
these occur long before there are any manifestations of will,
as the term is ordinarily understood, — indeed, before the
tissues through which alone will operates have been de-
veloped. At all periods of life there are tissues which live
and grow independently of the influence of will. Neither
can instinct nor mind be regarded as life, although I think
these, as well as will, are forms of vital power.
In man there seems to be seated in and limited to
a special part of his nervous mechanism, a still higher and
more wonderful power, influencing a very special and easily
destructible living matter. By virtue of this power man
alone, of all created beings, is impelled to seek for the
causes of the phenomena he observes, and is enabled
to devise new arrangements of material substances for his
own definite purposes, and in a manner in which these sub-
stances were never arranged before, and in which it is not
conceivable they could be arranged without man's design
and agency. The power supposed, totally distinct from any
forces or properties of which we are cognizant, and not in
any way correlated with any known forms or modes of force
of which we have any experience, — exerts its sway upon any
definite portion of matter, during varying but usually only
very brief periods of time, often momentarily, and is then
transferred to, or passes on, and influences new particles.
122 LIFE.
From these the powers are transmitted to others, and so
on. The amount of matter influenced at any one moment
being greater in some situations than in others, and varying
according to a number of circumstances. In relation with
the delicate living matter, seated near the surface of the grey
matter of the convolutions of man's brain, which is alone
concerned in mental action, I conceive that vital power
attains its most exalted form. It seems to be temporarily
chained, as it were, to this matter, which it acts upon, and
through which alone it can make itself evident ; but seeing
that all forms of vital power are transferable, surely there
is nothing contrary to reason in supposing that it may be
freed from the material, and yet be.
OF MIND.
Of Nerve Action in General.
|T has been very generally concluded that the
peripheral excitation of a nerve is due to some
change taking place in the nerve fibre itself; and
it must be admitted that some of the most recent anatomi-
cal observations in Germany favour this view, inasmuch as
fine terminal filaments of nerve fibre destitute of germinal matter
said to ramify amongst the anatomical elements of certain are
tissues. And these fibres are- represented as terminating in
free ends, which may reach the surface of the cuticle for
example, and even come into actual contact with anything
which touches it. But those who describe and figure such
fibres amongst the epithelial cells of an epidermic tissue,
do not tell us how they were formed, and how they came
into the positions in which observers profess to demonstrate
them. Many of the appearances represented in recent
drawings of the supposed nerve terminations, have long
been familiar to me, but I cannot accept the interpretation
which has been given. It is curious that lines between
certain epithelial cells, which by some have been looked
upon as nerves, have been regarded by other observers as
lymphatics, the tubes of which it has been said have been
actually filled with colouring matter. Careful observation,
124 OF MIND.
under most favourable circumstances, has forced me to dis-
sent entirely from both views. In every case in which I
have been able to demonstrate the finest nerve fibres I have
succeeded in proving the existence of germinal matter in
connection with them.
There is, however, no doubt that nerve action is influ-
enced by pressure upon the fibre of a nerve without any
change in germinal matter. In many nerves of the higher
animals a considerable length of axis cylinder intervenes
between the nerve centre and the peripheral distribution of
the nerve fibres, which is destitute of germinal matter, but
which, nevertheless, receives and transmits nervous impres-
sions made upon it in this part of its course. So that, although
absence of germinal matter from a considerable extent of
peripheral nerve fibre does not justify the conclusion that
the nerve fibre in question is not an active fibre, the mere
statement that very fine fibres have been seen amongst
epithelial or other cells, and constitute the essential part of
the peripheral nerve apparatus, must be received with the
greatest caution. Until these supposed nerve fibres have
been actually followed into undoubted nerve trunks, and
the manner in which they were formed has been clearly
pointed out, we cannot be expected to assent to the conclu-
sion that the appearances described are really due to nerves
at all. In all tissues of vertebrata in which I have studied
the very fine peripheral nerve fibres, I have succeeded in
tracing them into undoubted nerve trunks, and I have
always detected numerous masses of germinal matter in
connection with these fibres, as will be found figured in my
drawings. Moreover, the germinal matter is more abun-
ON NER VE A CTION IN GENERAL. 1 2 5
dant in the terminal portions of the peripheral nerve organs
that I have studied than in any other situations. I should,
therefore, doubt if terminal fibres which were destitute of
germinal matter were nerve fibres at all.
From a consideration of the facts we are led to conclude
that the nerve fibre in all cases transmits the nerve current
as a conductor, and that pressure, &c., upon any part of its
course will affect the rate of transmission of the current and
the conducting property of the fibre, but that the current
originates in germinal matter.
That the masses of germinal matter, which I have
shown to be numerous in the fine nerve fibres of nerve
organs, besides taking part in the formation of the fibres,
are concerned in nervous action, appears therefore to me
probable from the following facts : —
1. They are very numerous in the peripheral ramifica-
tions of all nerves.
2. All special peripheral nerve organs, as the retina, the
expansions of the olfactory and auditory nerves, the papillae
of touch and taste, as well as the peripheral nervous expan-
sions beneath sensitive mucous membranes, the skin, &c.,
are remarkable for the great number, as well as for the
large size, of the masses of germinal matter.
3. The proportion of germinal matter is always very
great in nerve centres, which there is abundant reason for
regarding as the principal seats of development of the
nerve force.
4. That where, as in the sensitive "papilla upon the toe
of the frog, the nerve organ is more acutely sensitive (or
more active in any other way) at one part of the year than
126 OF MIND.
at another, its increased activity is associated with a great
increase in the amount of the germinal matter.
5. The principal change which takes place in a texture
which in health appears to be but slightly sensitive, and
becomes eminently so when inflamed, as the peritoneum, is
a very great increase in the germinal matter which it contains
and this often proceeds to such an extent that the ramifica-
tions of the nerves appear as lines of oval masses of ger-
minal matter, so that when a tissue which in the healthy
state gives no evidence of sensation becomes acutely pain-
ful when inflamed, the feeling of pain must be due in some
way to an increase of the germinal matter of the nerves as
well as that of other tissues.
Of the Nerve Current. — The nerve current itself probably
results in a great measure from changes occurring in the
germinal matter of the nerve centres, or more probably in
the chemical compounds immediately formed by it ; and the
masses of germinal matter in the peripheral nerve organs
most likely give origin to feeble currents in much the same
way. In disease the intensity of the currents formed at the
periphery of the nerves is probably increased.
With regard to the nature of the nerve current little
positive is known, the general opinion of physiologists being
that it is some mode of force correlated with heat, electricity,
&c., but not exactly identical with any form or mode of
energy known. The arguments upon which this opinion
is based appear to me very inconclusive. Is it reasonable
to assume new modes or forms of force ? Surely the
evidence is strongly in favour of the view that the nerve
current is electricity, and I think that most, if not all,
OF THE NERVE CURRENT. I2y
the phenomena familiar to us may be explained upon this
view. Some physiologists have sought to account for the
wonderful phenomena of the nervous system by supposing
that some force or power of a peculiar and exceptional kind
is at work, and it seems scarcely to have occurred to them,
if ordinary force, as electricity, be made to travel in different
directions, and the currents combined in various ways and
made to traverse series of conducting cords very specially
arranged, according to design, the phenomena may be
accounted for without resorting to the hypothesis of the
existence of a peculiar mode or form of force not yet dis-
covered.* And it is more probable that the various effects
are determined by alterations in the intensity of the current,
and in the conducting properties of the fibres than by
different kinds of nerve force. It is surely more in accordance
with reason to endeavour to explain the phenomena by the
action of forces we know something about, than to attribute
them to the influence of other forms or modes of force
which are purely fanciful and fictitious. At any rate it
will be time to call in the aid of such airy nothings when
all attempts to explain the facts by known forces shall have
failed. No one has yet succeeded in rendering it probable
that the nerve current is not electricity while a great number
* Physicists and chemists see no difficulty whatever in assuming the
existence of many modes of force of which they can form no conception,
and think it very satisfactory to refer phenomena which they cannot
understand to some at present undiscovered form or mode of ordinary
motion • but if any one attributes these same phenomena to the influence
of some equally undiscovered form of force having no connexion what-
ever with primary energy or motion, he is ridiculed, because, say the
physicists and chemists, " there is but one force in kosmos !"
128 OF MIND.
of well ascertained facts are strongly in favour of this
inference.*
But if conclusive proof had been afforded that the nerve
current was electricity, we should not even in that case have
ascertained the whole truth, and, indeed, should have
advanced but a little way towards a true explanation of nerve
phenomena. For action and work are due not to force
alone, but to the machinery by which the force is con-
ditioned, and this is determined in nerve organs by the
arrangement of the fibres and centres — in short, by the
form or structure of the nerve apparatus. And this form
and structure are the result of a long series of changes of
the most complex character, which cannot be fully explained
in the present state of our knowledge, but can be proved
to be dependent upon the germinal matter ; and since it has
been shown that the nervous system at an early period con-
sists entirely of germinal matter, and that in the fully
developed state there is much germinal matter associated
with every part of it that is active, especially all nerve
centres and all peripheral organs, it is obvious that we can-
not advance one step towards the explanation until we have
determined the nature of the changes occurring in the
germinal matter.
But unfortunately we are not yet acquainted with the
exact structure even of the simplest nervous apparatus.
* It is a source of regret to me that my friend Dr. Child should
have so mistaken my views upon this matter, as to tell his readers
("Essays on Physiological Subjects." Second edition, p. 277) that I
look "upon nerve force as a form of vital force," which is a view
contrary to that which I have taught for the last twenty years.
STRUCTURE OF NERVE APPARATUS.
129
We do not know exactly what is essential for nervous action,
and the study of the constitution of the ultimate active
part of nerve tissues is a matter of the greatest difficulty.
But how can we hope, without an accurate knowledge
of the construction of the simplest type of nerve instrument,
to learn much about the working of the most complex
nervous apparatus ? Is not the kind of work performed by
an ordinary machine determined by its construction, and
has not every bit of the work done a particular form or
character stamped upon it which may be traced, as it were,
through the machine to its designer? To say that the work
done by any machine is the result of force, is, therefore, but
a half truth, — nay, it is not truth at all, for force alone can-
not do the work or produce the machine which performs
the work. Both the work and the machine exhibit character
or form which was not derived from force, but from mind,
or whatever that may be called which governs, directs,
designs. There is no mechanism, animate or inanimate,
simple or complex, which has resulted only from the influence
of ordinary force ; and although it has been asserted over
and over again that force forms and builds tissues, not the
slightest evidence can be advanced in support of this
arbitrary dogma. It would not be more absurd to assert
that motion designs, originates, and creates, than it is to
maintain that force forms and builds. Nor will all the
energy, authority, and influence the physico-chemical school
can bring to bear, succeed in forcing thoughtful and in-
telligent people to accept such assertions. What strikes one
as most wonderful is that any one should try to make people
believe that ordinary force can form, or has ever formed, any
K
I3o OF MIND.
mechanism or other thing in this world capable of working
or acting.
OF MENTAL NERVOUS ACTION.*
After the admissions I have been obliged to make of the
failure of attempts to demonstrate the mere structure of
comparatively simple nerve organs, it may seem almost a
waste of time to venture upon the consideration of the action
of the highest and most complex of them all ; but, in fact,
opinions have been formed and conclusions have been
arrived at upon the subject. There can be little impro-
priety, therefore, in enquiring what is the general conception
of mental nerve action to be derived from contemplating
the structure and arrangement of the tissues concerned, as
far as these have yet been elucidated, in conjunction with
a careful consideration of important general facts and prin-
ciples discovered in studying other and less complex nerve
phenomena.
There can be no doubt that the most important part of
the mechanism engaged in mental action is situated in the
grey matter of the cerebral convolutions ; and the results of
observations upon the structure, as well as experiments
upon the action of other nerve organs, justify us in the con-
clusion that nerve-cells consisting of germinal matter and
formed material, and nerve fibres composed of formed
material only, are the active agents. These are so arranged
* It is hoped that the new facts and observations recorded in this
section will, in some slight degree, atone for the occasional introduction
of what will now be regarded by many modern authorities an obsolete
metaphysic.
OF ME NT A L NER VO US A CTION. 1 3 T
as to constitute a mechanism (if this term may be properly
applied to it) of marvellous perfection and complexity.
The fibres, many being of extreme tenuity, are seen to
interlace with one another, and run in every conceivable
direction, so that when the observer realizes the actual
arrangement as it exists in a very small portion of grey
matter, and this is the utmost he can hope to do, he marvels
how it has been brought about. Though he is convinced
that the whole has been, as it were, laid down according to
a definite plan and has been designed to fulfil a special
purpose, he is unable to picture to himself the gradual
changes by which the result has been attained, and he
cannot discover the laws which have governed them. There
can, however, be no question that our knowledge upon these
matters will increase as investigation advances, although it
is not likely we shall ever be able to explain with exactness
the nature of the power, force, or property which determines
at the first the ultimate structure and exact arrangement the
mechanism shall at length acquire. To state that this is due
to crystallisation, or formifaction, or differentiation, and to
offer any such vague assertion as an explanation of the facts
observed, is not adding to our knowledge.
After having shown (p. 87) in what particulars the for-
mation of the simplest structure differs from the process
of crystallisation, it is unnecessary to discuss the question
with reference to the highest and most complex tissue
known. But even if we could explain the formation of the
complex structure of the cerebral convolutions, we should
have advanced but a little way towards a knowledge of
mental action, for, as it were, behind all this structure,
K 2
132 OF MIND.
operating now on one part of the mechanism, now on
another, is the mind, the will, the thinking power itself.
What is the nature of this, and how does it act upon the
mechanism ? If the conclusions to which I have been led
with regard to the importance of germinal matter in all
ordinary nervous acts be correct, it is almost certain that
mental nervous action is very intimately associated with
changes occurring in a particular kind of living growing
matter. We find a large proportion of germinal matter
present in the grey matter of every kind of brain, and at
every period of life. Even in old age, when the proportion
of germinal matter in the various tissues and organs of the
body has become much reduced, a large amount is still
found in the grey matter of the brain. Moreover, the mental
excitement, wakefulness, and delirium, so remarkable in
many cases of fever and inflammation of the membranes
and superficial portion of the grey matter of the convo-
lutions, are invariably associated with changes in the
germinal matter. In such cases I find the masses of
germinal matter are much larger than in the healthy tissue,
and, in some instances they are twice as large. I have also
seen the enlarged mass in the centre of the caudate nerve-
cells dividing into several masses which resemble pus
corpuscles, and have the same appearance as the pus
corpuscles which are sometimes seen in epithelium
(PL VIIL, p. 34).
But if it be admitted that mental phenomena are entirely
due to changes in the germinal matter of the cerebral con-
volutions, there will be much difference of opinion con-
cerning j.th^. precise way in which this germinal matter
S A
ARE MENTAL ACTIONS REFLEX? 133
operates \ and, in connexion with this question, it must be
admitted there is much room for speculation. I shall
venture to bring under notice the view which, in my opinion,
appears, upon the whole, to be most in accordance with
facts of observation and experiment. But, in the first
place, I propose to refer very briefly to some of the opinions
which have been entertained upon this matter, and to the
general principles upon which these have been based.
Every one will admit that the nerve tissue of the brain
is the instrument through which alone thought works and
mind acts, and I think the facts I have advanced render it
impossible for any one to deny that this instrument is formed
by, or is the result of, changes taking place in germinal
matter; but we are not now inquiring how the material
channels which convey the mandates of the will are formed,
but rather how these mandates originate, from what they
emanate, and what is their nature.
Are Mental Nervous Actions of the Nature of Reflex
Actions ? — In all animals which possess nerve organs we
find that an external impression is followed by a certain
internal change, and we explain this by saying that the
physical disturbance is conducted by the afferent nerves to
the nerve centre, whence it is reflected by motor nerves
distributed to the muscles, which are thus caused to contract,
and in many cases the intensity of the contraction varies
with the character of the external impression. Such are
the so-called physical or reflex nervous actions. In mental
nervous actions, however, the impression starts from within,
not from without, and although certain of the lower mental
operations may perhaps without impropriety be included
'34
OF MIND.
in the category of reflex actions, we are all conscious of
others, and these the highest of all nervous phenomena and
peculiar to man himself, which require no external stimulus
for their excitation. These, on the contrary, attain their
highest perfection when the mind is absorbed in contem-
plating its own peculiar states, and has succeeded, as it
were, in withdrawing itself to the utmost possible extent
from the influence of surrounding conditions which operate
physically upon the peripheral portion only of a mechanism,
the central portion of which is in some way under the im-
mediate control of mind. To say, then, in answer to the
question, "What happens in the brain when its possessor
thinks ?" that what he terms ideas and thoughts are excited
by, and are the consequence of, changes occurring outside
him, — the result of an external impulse, — and due to a sort
of reflex action, appears to me a very unsatisfactory reply,
not approaching an explanation. For, in the first place, if
we admit that mental action results from external impres-
sions, these must be stored up in some unknown manner,
and lie dormant for a long period of time, while actions
which are ordinarily termed reflex are characterized by
immediately following the external impressions. Secondly,
in mental nervous acts, no one has shown that the supposed
mental reflex action bears any relation whatever to the
external physical impulse supposed to excite it ; or how is
to be explained, upon the reflex hypothesis, the fact that
a very slight external impression may excite excessive
mental action, or vice versa ? Thirdly, when the mind is most
active, ordinary reflex phenomena are often in complete
abeyance. Fourthly, the organs concerned in ordinary
MIND AND THE ORGANS OF SENSATION.
135
reflex actions are in an active state long before mental
nervous organs are developed, and it is difficult to see why
the mental apparatus should be so much slower in develop-
ment than other reflex apparatus if it is of this nature.
The reflex mechanism soon attains its highest state of per-
fection. The mental apparatus advances slowly in develop-
ment, but continues to improve for years after it has been
formed, and we can form no conception of the state of per-
fection it may possibly attain. The mental apparatus
exhibits a capacity for altering its structure and of making
itself more perfect. Fifthly, in man, mental actions con-
tinue to improve long after the organs concerned in reflex
actions have begun to deteriorate. And, lastly, a capacity
for mental action of the highest kind is not unfrequently
associated with a nervous system below the average, as
regards the performance of ordinary reflex acts. It is,
therefore, doubtful if mental action is a kind of reflex
nervous action.
Nor can it be maintained that mind is but a consequence
of the action of the organs of the senses ; for, although we
are dependent upon these for obtaining the knowledge, with
which the mind works, the mind itself can have nothing
more to do with these or other organs, seeing that they may
be entirely removed or destroyed, and the mind work as
actively as ever. It cannot obtain new knowledge to
work with ; but the perfection of its working is one thing,
the amount of knowledge acquired is another, and we
know that these things are sometimes even in inverse ratio,
one individual being remarkable for the excellence of his
mental capacity, but having little knowledge, while another
136 OF MIND.
has vast information of which he can make but little use for
lack of intellect.
The Brain is not a Gland. — Some have looked upon
brain as a sort of gland by which thoughts and ideas were
formed or secreted, as if thought, which can neither be
touched, weighed, measured, nor in any way physically
estimated, was a thing allied to the bile, the saliva, or the
gastric juice, which are material substances, and can be
analyzed and otherwise experimentally studied. It would
not be more unreasonable to maintain design or will to be
a part of the material framework of the organism, than to
assert that mind, like certain kinds of matter, is secreted.
Thought is no more material than that peculiar capacity
which makes living matter of a certain kind at length
become oak, cabbage, dog, man, &c. Nay, it is further
removed from the material, for while the property or power
referred to influences the very particles of matter, and
makes them take up certain fixed and definite positions,
thought only produces a sort of evanescent vibration, which
results in the expression of ideas which are themselves as
immaterial as the thought itself.
Of Mind as a Function of the Brain. — Mental energy
has been regarded as the function of the brain, but if it be so
it is a function of a very different order from that discharged
by other organs. Function implies an act in which will,
purpose, design, are not concerned, and in which material
changes can be proved to take place. The function of a
gland is to produce a secretion. Certain conditions neces-
sitate the production of this or that particular secretion,
which may vary to some extent, according as the conditions
OF MIND AS A FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN. 137
are changed. The function of a muscle is to contract and
become relaxed, but the material change only occurs in
definite directions, necessitated by the structure of the
instrument and the force which acts upon it. The exercise
of choice is neither possible nor conceivable. So, too, with
reference to the function of nerves. These transmit cur-
rents. The paths which the currents are to traverse having
been determined and formed, the currents are developed
and transmitted along the nerves.
But the discharge of function on the part of the organ
of the mind is an operation very different from any of these.
The great characteristic in this case is choice — selective
capacity. If the cells of the liver chose for themselves
whether they would secrete bile or not, or determined the
kind of bile to be secreted, or the bile chose for itself by
which ducts it should pass, whether it would flow quickly,
slowly, or not at all ; if the muscle contracted now in one
part and now in another, according as it willed — if it
elected to contract in one direction, and then in a different
one ; if the nerve cells decided among themselves which
should produce current and which not : if the current chose
to run along one fibre at one time and then along another,
according to the object it had in view — then, but only then,
as it seems to me^ could mental activity be regarded as in
any way analogous to the function of an organ or of a tissue.
To look upon mental action as a mere function of the brain
seems to be a fundamental error, and one which those who
have really studied the structure and action of secreting
organs and nerve organs could not make.
Mental activity may rather be compared with that mar-
138 OF MIND.
vellous power, property, or capacity, which enables the liver
cell to form what we call bile, which renders possible that
change in shape of the ultimate particles of muscle which
gives rise to contraction, and determines the change in the
ultimate molecules of nerve matter upon which the current
depends; but this power is not the function; it is that
which alone renders function possible. But even this com-
parison is not a true one, for the power above referred to
acts as if it were of some necessity, while the remarkable
characteristic of mental action is freedom of choice. Cer-
tain conditions being present, the liver cell must form bile,
the muscle must contract, the nerve cell must give rise to,
and the nerve fibre must transmit, the current ; but is it con-
ceivable that under certain conditions, actual or supposed,
the brain must think ? Is what I am now writing but the
result of the distribution of a little extra proportion of
certain nutrient constituents and oxygen to my nerve cells
which thereby compels me to say all these things ? Have
I no choice ? — must I say all this, and in the precise way in
which it is here said ? All these things would surely have
been said in a far better and more perfect manner if the
ideas had been formed like a secretion by a healthy gland,
independently of experience and without any efforts of my
own. All our glands perform their work perfectly when
their formation is complete. They require no teaching, and
they work without effort, and for the most part without our
knowledge. Again, there is nothing in the action of a
gland which at all corresponds to the improvement in
capacity which results from exercise, so remarkable in the
case of cerebral nervous action. The general tissues and
EXPRESSION OF THOUGHTS. 139
organs, at least of those persons who have reached or
passed middle age, performed their functions some years
ago as well as, and I fear in some respects even better
than they do now. Will has exerted, and can exert upon
them, no direct influence. But it is very different with
regard to the organ of the mind and the tissues concerned
in intellectual action. Every one knows that the degree of
perfection which these have attained or will attain is deter-
mined in great measure by his own efforts — by his own will.
The thinking instrument of one individual is not capable of
being perfected in the same degree as that of another, but
is is quite certain that each may be improved and made to
work more perfectly, if its possessor determines that this
shall be ; nay, I think I may say, if he will not interfere
actively to prevent its improvement, for the natural tendency
of the mind is to exercise itself, and, in doing so, the in-
strument which it directs necessarily improves. As the
mechanism becomes more perfect, the pleasure afforded by
its working becomes greater, and to real desire and sustained
effort on the part of the mind soon succeeds improvement
in the structure of the healthy instrument, by which the
attainment of the end desired is rendered possible.
But no doubt the degree of perfection to which an Jn-
dividual can attain in giving expression to his thoughts is
limited by the excellence of structure reached by the
mechanism upon which thought operates, and this will of
course depend very much upon original developmental
capacity, but yet in no small degree to the training to which
it may have been subjected from early youth when it was
in an eminently plastic state, and capable of being so dis-
j4o OF MIND.
posed as to attain ultimately a very high state of efficiency.
In order to produce the greatest possible results, the thinking
power, the selective capacity, must have at its disposal a
mechanism of eminent perfection capable of being im-
pressed by and of giving exact expression to the slightest
undulations of the matter upon which the mind imme-
diately acts.
Of Mental as compared with Mechanical Action. — If a
machine could be made which would change from time to
time, of its own accord, the kind of work it performed
without any alteration being made in its mechanical arrange-
ments, a rough comparison might be drawn between such a
machine and the brain, but a machine of the kind supposed
exists not, and is not conceivable.
Let us consider if the actions of the mental apparatus
exhibit any analogy with those performed by a vast number
of highly complex machines so arranged as to be under
the influence of one person, this or that being made to
work according as he willed ? In order to make the case
as strong as possible, we may further suppose every machine
to be constantly wound up ready to be brought into opera-
tion on the instant, and capable of being stopped with
facility. Or can we imagine an immense telegraph system
which, besides communicating information, shall be capable
of effecting mechanical work ? The supposed machines have
no breaks or any of those arrangements to prevent injury or
over-action, as in the various kinds of apparatus made by
us. And further, our imaginary machine ought to be made
of soft material, like brain-matter, and every portion of it
should be capable of gradual renovation. Such conditions,
OF MENTAL AND MECHANICAL WORK. 141
we know, cannot possiby be fulfilled, and therefore no true
analogy can exist between any machines made by us and
the nervous mechanism concerned in mental action. But
admitting that they might be, and without laying stress
upon the fact that the nervous apparatus, unlike the machine,
keeps itself in order and in working condition if only the
rest needful for its repair and renovation be granted, we
have yet to find the power, the hand that guides the mental
engine, its superintendent, who bids the wheels revolve or
stops them, who allows the work to proceed or checks it, as
he wills. What sort of guide can we find in the case of the
mental machine, where is he seated, and how does he
influence the complex apparatus under his immediate indi-
vidual care and sole control ? In what spot in the brain
are we to search for him ? But do we not know that the
structure of the grey matter is such as to preclude the
possibility of the existence of anything exhibiting any
approach towards any mechanical arrangements known ?
We understand its construction sufficiently to justify us in
concluding that the nervous matter operates in a manner
different in principle from the action of any known me-
chanism.
It has been said that in the brain we have " molecular
machinery" built by the sun, but no one has shown what
this supposed molecular machinery is like, what is its
structure, how it acts, or how it is formed. Molecular
machinery is a term which conveys no idea whatever to the
mind. No one could draw or make a model of the supposed
molecular machinery. We may have molecular matter, and
we may have machinery, but there are no machines the
142
OF MIND.
molecules of which are active, and there are no molecules
which act like machines — in fact, there is no molecular
machinery, and, it is scarcely necessary to say, nothing what-
ever has been built by the sun. The expression is altogether
incorrect, is calculated to mislead, and, there is reason
to think, has led many to accept conclusions utterly at
variance with established truths. The phrase " properties of
the molecules" is made to do duty in the same way, and
we are told that the properties of a living being existed
potentially in the molecules of cosmic vapour of which his
body is made; but can we hope to learn much by discussing
the possible properties of the hypothetical molecules of
hypothetical primitive nebulosity ? The brain we do know
something about, and we can learn much more concerning it,
but of the primitive nebulosity of ourselves, or of the world
we inhabit, we can know nothing and can learn nothing.
Of Thought as a Result of Chemical Action. — Some
have expressed the opinion that thought was to be explained
by the oxidation of chemical compounds in the brain.
Judging from some of the remarks which have been made
concerning the supposed chemical changes in nerve matter,
one would infer that the brain, instead of consisting of
millions of separate anatomical units exhibiting an elaborate
structure and arranged in beautiful order, was but a mass of
fatty albuminous pulpy material, rich in phosphorus, the
action of which was determined by the oxidation of certain
of its component elements, particularly the last, the oxygen
being carried to the nerve pulp, and the products of chemical
change being removed from it by the blood circulating in
the vessels freely ramifying in the substance of the pulpy
IS THE BRAIN A VOLTAIC BATTERY? 143
mass. But although there is no doubt that in the expression
of thought chemical changes takes place in the nerve matter,
it has by no means been proved, nay, I cannot admit that
the arguments advanced render it even probable, that thought
itself results from chemical change. It would be more in
accordance with what we know to conclude that thought
preceded and determined the chemical change occurring in
particular particles of the brain matter, than that it was a
consequence of it. Chemical change will not alone account
for any vital acts whatever. If the movements of part of
a mass of living matter in advance of other parts were due
to chemical action, such movements would soon be pro-
duced in the laboratory, but chemistry has not yet advanced
one step in this direction. The special action of any par-
ticular apparatus is not usually explained by asserting that
it is due to the disintegration and oxidation of its con-
stituent parts — of wheels and cranks, for example — but yet
some will have it that the action of the cerebral apparatus
is to be satisfactorily accounted for by the disintegration
and oxidation of the matter of which it is composed.
Is the Brain to be looked upon as a Voltaic Battery ? —
" Another hypothesis, to the legitimacy of which no objec-
tion can lie, and one which is well calculated to light the
path of scientific inquiry, is that suggested by several
recent writers, that the brain, is a voltaic pile, and that each
of its pulsations is a discharge of electricity through the
system. It has been remarked that the sensation felt by
the hand from the beating of a brain bears a strong re-
semblance to a voltaic shock, and the hypothesis, if followed
to its consequences, might afford a plausible explanation of
OF
many physiological facts, while there is nothing to discourage
the hope that we may in time sufficiently understand the
conditions of voltaic phenomena to render the truth of the
hypothesis amenable to observation and experiment."* By
adducing in its favour such a statement as that about the
resemblance of the beating of a brain to a voltaic shock,
Mr. Mill upsets his favourite hypothesis, for it is certain that
if there be any resemblance between a brain and a voltaic
pile it is not of the kind implied.
But it may be that each little brain cell with its con-
nected fibres in some way resembles a minute voltaic battery
with its wires \ the matter of which the cell is composed
undergoing chemical change, in the course of which slight
electrical currents are developed. These being transmitted
by the fibres ramifying to different parts exert an influence
upon distant tissues and organs among which they ramify.
In this case some further arrangement is required by which
the action of particular cells and fibres is determined or
prevented. Perhaps the closest analogy we can draw
between cerebral action and that of an electrical battery is
the following : — We may suppose in the brain multitudes
of minute active galvanic batteries with their delicate con-
ducting wires or threads ramifying over extensive tracts
of tissue, the action of which is determined by the currents
traversing the wires. Situated among these wires or threads,
we may suppose little bodies intimately connected with one
another which are capable of undergoing alterations in form
like the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, and other forms of
living germinal matter. Not the slightest movement, though
* Mill's "Logic, "p. 18.
ON EXPRESSING THOUGHTS. 145
it only amount to gentle quivering, can occur in any part
of these bodies without an effect being produced upon the
currents which traverse the delicate wires impinging upon
different parts of their surfaces. Points in a vast number of
circuits differing widely in their ultimate distribution are
thus brought, as it were, within the influence of it may be
each of these little masses of living matter, and the rate of
transmission of the current through many different wires
having different destinations and acting upon diverse
machinery may thus be affected at the same moment, de-
termining a variety of actions. But if it be admitted that
the brain in structure and action resembles such an arrange-
ment of minute voltaic batteries and conducting wires, we have
to explain how all these were formed and made to take up
the positions they occupy in relation to one another and to
other organs before we can give any satisfactory and com-
plete explanation of its action. For the kind of work per-
formed by a machine is due to its structure as well as to the
forces by which the machine is set in motion. And further,
the movements occurring in the little bodies supposed to
act upon the currents transmitted by the threads must take
place spontaneously. It need scarcely be remarked that
any such action in a machine or any mechanical or chemico-
mechanical contrivance whatever, is impossible.
On expressing Thoughts.— But in considering the nature
of mental nervous action, it is necessary in the first instance
to distinguish clearly between the mental action — the actual
thought ; and its expression. The conversion of thoughts
into symbols which others can appreciate is due to a highly
elaborate mechanism working in the most perfect manner,
L
146 OF MIND.
but it by no means follows that if we understood exactly
the manner in which this mechanism worked, we should
therefore be able to form an accurate conception of the
nature of thought itself. Thoughts and ideas may, and in
some cases do, undoubtedly exist, although they cannot be
expressed in any way in consequence of the derangement
or destruction of the mechanism concerned in expression.
And in certain forms of cerebral disease intellectual action
is performed, although the mechanism concerned in expres-
sion is completely deranged. Ideas are formed by the
mind, and although the person can indicate this and con-
vince us by his gestures that the idea is in his mind, he is
quite unable to express it and make it intelligible to others.
The mechanism concerned in expressing thoughts consists
of a nervo-muscular apparatus arranged with such consum-
mate skill, and occupying so small a space, that it is possible
for the mind to form but a most imperfect conception of the
arrangement of even a very small part of it.
It is difficult in many cases to decide to what extent
the apparatus concerned in expressing ideas is engaged in
silent reasoning and cogitation. When we think over
complex matters, and reason upon them, we work with
certain mental images or symbols of the things, but cer-
tainly not with the verbal expressions of them, nor even with
their representatives, but with something far short of either,
though sufficiently distinct and exact nevertheless. A great
number of these images may be marshalled, as it were,
before the mind almost in a moment, and conclusions
arrived at which would require the greatest cleverness and
a long time accurately to express. And in but too many
ON EXPRESSING THOUGHTS. 147
instances, after making the greatest efforts, we only succeed
in conveying to the minds of others the roughest, coarsest
representation of a mental image which to us is distinct,
clear, and perfect in all its details. And it is well known
how much more fatiguing is the operation of expressing
than that of thinking and drawing conclusions mentally.
The results of a few hours' thinking, obtained without any
perceptible exhaustion and without any conscious effort,
may require many days' hard labour to reduce to a form
intelligible to other minds, and in this operation the bodily
health may suffer, as well as the mental vigour be impaired.
It would therefore seem as if thinking and cogitation
belonged to the class of actions which I have distinguished
as vita/, and which* are performed without waste or change
in constitution of material substance, while the expression
of thoughts undoubtedly involves material changes of the
most active kind. We may roughly compare the first to
the acts of an engineer who directs and controls a machine,
and the last to the work performed by the machine itself.
The engineer or superintendent, it may be said, merely
exerts a directing and controlling influence which has
nothing whatever to do with the combustion of coals or
the falling of the weights, uncoiling of the spring, &c. He
contributes nothing that can be weighed or measured
towards the work performed by the machine. He can
exist without the machine, and the latter may act without
him, yet we all know how very much the result produced,
as regards both the quantity and the quality of work per-
formed, is due to his interference.
L 2
148 OF MIND.
OF THE LIVING MATTER CONCERNED IN
MENTAL ACTION.
I will now refer further to the results of anatomical
investigation. Near the surface of the grey matter in that
extensive layer above the planes in which the caudate
nerve-cells are situated, which is generally said to be com-
posed of delicate nerve-fibres and " granular matter," I have
succeeded in demonstrating multitudes of very small masses
of germinal matter lying amongst the finest branches of the
nerve fibres. In some places there are aggregations or col-
lections of these bodies, which are extremely delicate, and
become disintegrated very soon after death. Some sections
appear to consist almost entirely of these bodies, so great is
their number. They seem to be connected together by very
delicate processes of the same transparent material. Masses
of germinal matter thus situated are arranged very favour-
ably for influencing the fine nerve-fibres which ramify
amongst them. The slightest change in their form could
not fail to affect nerve currents traversing these fibres, and
as we are now well acquainted with the active movements
of germinal matter, it is impossible to help suggesting that
the movements occurring in these masses of germinal
matter produce a direct effect upon the adjacent fibres,
and that these vital movements or vibrations occurring
in matter of excessive tenuity constitute or are rather the
immediate consequences of mental vital action. The direc-
tions in which the living matter is made to move by the
conscious life-power which directs it, will determine the
CHARACTERS OF LIVING MATTER.
149
particular cords of the nerve mechanism to be struck ;
special movements expressing the inward ideas then follow.
If this be so, mind is the vital power which is associated with
this the most exalted form of living or germinal matter, so
arranged that the slightest change occurring in it may pro-
duce indirectly an effect through the influence of a most
elaborate mechanism, brought into very intimate relation
with it. Although I am not prepared to deny that the
germinal matter of the caudate nerve-cells of the grey
matter of the cerebral convolutions is concerned in mental
nervous actions, there are many arguments which lead me
to think that this is not the material substance which is
immediately influenced by the mind, but belongs rather to
that wonderful mechanism which is concerned in the
expression of thought, and in the conversion of ideas into
symbols.
Of the Character of the Germinal Matter taking part in
Mental Operations. — Some might anticipate that the matter
immediately influenced by mind would exhibit some remark-
able structure and arrangement, but those who have studied
the characters of living matter in the lowest and highest
organisms will not expect to find this, the highest form,
exhibiting any structure whatever or possessing any peculiar
chemical composition. They will be prepared to find the
highest forms composed of the same colourless, structure-
less, moving substance which constitutes the living matter
of the lowest organisms, and they will look for a difference
in power — in endowment, not for any material difference.
The germinal matter of the embryo of the highest and most
complex being in nature cannot be distinguished from that
OF MIND.
constituting the germ of a very simple creature, nor does
the germinal matter of the nerve-cells of the human embryo
exhibit any special characters. We should therefore an-
ticipate that the highest form of germinal matter known,
that which takes part in mental action, would agree in its
characters so far as we are able to determine them, with
other forms. The difference, vast as it is, is a difference in
power, which, however, we can only estimate by the results
of its action — by the effects produced by it. In the living
state this form of living matter is no doubt perfectly trans-
parent, of excessive tenuity, and exhibits no characters
which would enable us to form any notion of its exalted
powers. These powers, properties, or endowments are
unquestionably due, not to its chemical composition or to
the peculiar arrangement of its particles as compared with
other forms of germinal matter, but solely to that wonderful
force, property, or power, which I would place under the
head of vital power.
We should anticipate that of all kinds of germinal matter
known, that concerned in mental nervous action would be
most evanescent and prone to rapid decay and disintegration
after death. It is therefore not surprising that in many
cases no trace of the delicate masses of germinal matter I
have described should be discovered. And I feel sure that
what I have been able to demonstrate affords but a very
imperfect idea of the real number and arrangement of the
masses of germinal matter which exist in the living state.
We should expect that change would almost immediately
follow the death of the individual, and that this form of
germinal matter would be completely broken down long
MENTAL GERMINAL MATTER. 151
before other kinds existing in the same organism had ceased
to manifest vital phenomena. And I may remark that the
length of time during which different forms of germinal
matter survive the general death of the organism varies
greatly — some dying very soon, while others live even for
days. The capacity for living under altered conditions
becomes greater as we descend from the highest towards
the lowest kinds of germinal matter, the highest being killed
by slight alteration in the surrounding circumstances, while
the lowest resist very considerable changes, and for long
periods of time. The pus corpuscle and the particle of
contagium, both which are descendants of the germinal
matter of the organism, retain their vitality under conditions
which certainly would have been fatal to the germinal
matter from which they sprang.* The power of resisting
the destroying influence of varying external conditions seems
to increase as germinal matter becomes more and more
debased.
And it is interesting to note here, that this, the highest
form of germinal matter, when exposed to altered conditions,
dies, instead of, like many lower forms of germinal matter,
growing, and mulitiplying, and giving origin to masses
of germinal matter possessing different properties. In in-
flammation this is, so to say, protected by the lower forms
of germinal matter in the immediate neighbourhood, taking
upon themselves increased growth and multiplication, and
absorbing the excess of nutrient matter present. The
germinal matter of the connective tissue of the pia mater
* See my Report on the Cattle Plague, 1865.
152 OF MIND.
and adjacent cerebral tissue, that of the vessels and pro-
bably also that of the large caudate nerve vesicles of the
grey matter, may all be involved by inflammatory change,
and the germinal matter taking part in mental nervous
action escape. I think that the mechanism concerned in
expression may undergo the most serious changes while
the highest form of germinal matter may escape, and even
retain its integrity; although there is no longer any pos-
sibility of proving that this is so, if the nerve apparatus
concerned in expression is -deranged or destroyed.
And I may further remark that different forms of germinal
matter in all parts of the organism suffer in inflammation in
different degrees and in different order. Generally those
which are of least importance, and which, as regards their
formative capacity, are lowest in the scale, are the first to
suffer. The germinal matter of epithelium and connective
tissue are soon affected ; that of the capillaries, including the
white blood-corpuscles, follows next in order ; then that of
fibrous tissue, cartilage, and bone, the germinal matter of the
muscular fibre-cells of the small arteries and veins ; while
that belonging to the voluntary muscles, that of the peripheral
nerve organs and the peripheral ramification of the nerves
is the last to be involved. In like manner the germinal
matter of the several tissues entering into the formation
of the great central nerve organs, is affected in different
order. The connective tissues, fibrous tissues, capillaries,
arteries, and veins being involved before the nerve elements
themselves are attacked, and of these the lowest as regards
function suffer before those which are concerned in the
most exalted nerve actions. These last seem to be pre-
LIVING MATTER CONCERNED. 153
served from damage for a long while, but when at last they
become involved, death succeeds, before time has elapsed
for any great degree of morbid change to have taken place;
while in other cases the germinal matter with the tissue may
have completely degenerated without the death of the indi-
vidual having been occasioned.
The living matter concerned in mental operations is
that which is last formed, and is probably the highest con-
dition which living matter has yet assumed. Like other
forms taking part in the formation of the various tissues
and organs belonging to the organism, it has been derived
by direct descent from the original germinal matter of the
embryo. From the growth and subdivision of that primitive
mass have resulted, and in definite and prearranged order,
numerous forms endowed with marvellously different powers.
But the germinal matter which forms cuticle, that which
produces fibrous tissue, muscle, nerve or bone, the germinal
matter which gives rise to biliary secretion, to the saliva,
and to the gastric juice, as well as that which takes part in
mental nervous action have, so to say, one common parent-
age ; and if, as these several forms are evolving themselves,
or are being evolved, the conditions which alone render pos-
sible progress towards their highest state becomes modified,
the attainment of perfection is prevented. Such cases are
familiar to us under the term arrested development, in which,
up to a certain period of life, everything seems to have
proceeded correctly, but then in consequence of some dis-
turbing action modifying the process of nutrition and affect-
ing the division and subdivision of the germinal matter,
the structures which would at length have resulted in due
154
OF MIND.
course can never be formed. Of all the changes originating
in this way, those affecting the germinal matter taking part
in the development of the higher parts of the nervous
system of man lead to the most disastrous results. That
gradual development of the mental powers after the indi-
vidual has ceased to grow, which is one of the most re-
markable of the characters by which man is marked off
from the lower animals, is rendered impossible, and the
mental powers of the child or of the infant remain asso-
ciated with the organism of the adult.
The new powers which germinal matter acquires as
development advances arise in some way as the new
centres (nuclei, nucleoli) originate in pre-existing centres, —
when, it may be said, matter comes under the influence of
the vital immaterial agency, and sets out upon a new
course which has been appointed. How the new powers
which it has acquired are communicated to it, it is as im-
possible to suggest as it is to explain how these new centres
originate. And it may be asked what is to be understood
by " centre," for it is obvious that the centre demonstrated
by low powers has within it numerous centres, as may be
proved by examination under glasses magnifying very
highly, and there is reason to believe that if our powers
were increased ten, twenty, or a hundred-fold, we should
approach but a little nearer to the unrealisable actual
centre; and I can conceive that in the highest forms of
germinal matter new centres of living matter are constantly
welling up, as it were, in already existing centres, having
within themselves infinite and inexhaustible power for the
endowment of new centres.
EFFECTS OF EXERCISE. 1 5 5
The germinal matter taking part in mental action, like
other forms, is no doubt liable to defective as well as irregular
and monstrous growth, even during and after the adult period
of life. These changes, which may be temporary or per-
manent, are probably more under the immediate influence
of the will than is the case as regards changes in other
forms of germinal matter. But there can, I imagine be
little doubt that, just as by exercise up to, and in many
cases even after, the middle period of life, we are enabled
to increase the power of certain muscles and the perfec-
tion of certain movements which are associated with in-
creased formation of nerves and nerve-cells in the nerve
centre governing them : so, by habitually indulging in
certain trains of thought, we may perhaps effect the
increase of the germinal matter concerned, until at last
this preponderates so much over other portions taking part
in other kinds of mental action that it alone is exercised,
while the rest remains hardly active at all or quite dor-
mant. Every lunatic asylum affords what I conceive to be
examples of this, and it is not impossible in certain
instances to distinguish the cases in which the mental
living matter itself is deranged from those in which the
mechanism concerned in the expression of ideas is the
seat of disease. On the other hand, what remarkable
instances do we meet with of the gradual but continuous
improvement of the mental powers even in advanced life,
where they have been subjected to unremitting but judi-
cious exercise from early youth onwards !
The mental excitement and incoherence, followed by
complete suspension of mental powers, which occur in
inflammation and other conditions where the germinal
156 OF MIND.
matter takes up an abnormal proportion of nutrient mate-
rial, are readily explained, as are also those cases in which
impaired intellectual action follows as a consequence of
the disease. Where the morbid change has proceeded to a
considerable extent, there may be permanent impairment,
while in cases where only slight change has occurred,
only temporary derangement may result.
Of the Nature of Will, and of the Life of Germinal
Matter taking part in Mental' Operations. — Many considera-
tions lead me to conclude that will, so far from being a
result of certain chemical changes induced in matter, should
rather be regarded as the power which influences the material
particles and causes them to move and take up new positions.
It seems to me that this power is of the same order as that
which induces the movements in germinal matter, and which
I have ventured to call vital power. I conceive that the
change in form of the germinal matter is a consequence of
some influence exerted upon the particles immediately pre-
ceding their movement. This active cause, the nature of
which we know nothing, and which gives rise, we know not
how, to material changes which, in the case of some of the
lower forms of living matter, can be seen distinctly, con-
stitutes the vital power of the germinal matter. This is, as
it were, the starting point of all those complex phenomena
which occur whenever a voluntary, act is performed, and, as
regards the material changes in the germinal matter con-
cerned in mental operations, is the mind. The germinal or
living matter may be said to be the domicile of the ego;
but so rough are our methods of investigation that when
we commence to search for the ego we destroy its habitation,
and the ego escapes whither we cannot follow it. The par-
NA TURE OF WILL. 1 5 7
tides of the matter which were directed and changed by it
may be directed and changed in new ways ; but it is absurd
to think we can discover the directing, changing ego in the
dead and disintegrated matter which remains after it has
gone, and equally absurd to deny its existence because we
cannot find it, or to affirm that it is mere force which has
changed its mode or form. Certainly the dead matter we
see and touch may in some sense be regarded as having
once formed a part of the material framework of the living
being, but it was then in a very different state, for that
which gave it body and made it what it was has since gone.
To assert that the material elements of the grey matter of
the brain of a dead man are all that constituted the active
living organ of the mind, would, indeed be strange. It is
that which has escaped that alone acted through the living
matter upon the mechanism which is subordinated to it.
But the mechanism may work although in a different way
if affected by other influences. A chance breath of air
may throw the strings of the lyre into vibration and longing
listeners may even think they hear the measured strains
they know so well, but it is soon discovered how different
are the accidental unmeaning notes from the harmonious
cadences in which the successive undulations of the mind
were wont to be expressed. Again, the instrument may
be deranged, in which case not a conception of the most
vivid imagination can make itself known. The learned
declare that an instrument is hopelessly out of order, and
consider that that is all that need be thought or said about
the matter.
If my conclusions tend towards the truth, it almost
follows that before we can be in a position to form an
158 OF MIND.
opinion upon the nature of a mental process we must at
least be able to form a conception of the actions which
immediately precede the observed changes of form in a
mass of very simple living matter that can be easily subjected
to investigation, and of the antecedent change which determines
these actions. But unfortunately at present we have no means
of investigating this most important question. We cannot
explain why one part of a living mass should move in ad-
vance of another. To say the movement must be the con-
sequence of some antecedent phenomenon will only satisfy
those who are content to receive arbitrary assertions in
place of explanations. The supposed antecedent phe-
nomenon is unknown, and is, perhaps, in the present state of
things, unknowable. It is probably altogether wrong to use
the word phenomenon here at all, the antecedent in this case
not being a phenomenon. Until the movements of the living
matter of an amoeba or a white blood-corpuscle have been
satisfactorily accounted for, it is not likely we shall be able
to arrive at any positive conclusions concerning the nature
of the actual changes in the living matter which determine
mental nervous actions, but it is surely a step in advance if
it is rendered probable that these are intimately related to
the vital changes in germinal or living matter. The argu-
ments I have advanced in favour of the view that the highest
mental actions are associated with vital movements, and
are, in fact vital actions occurring in living matter, appear
to me to be justified by the facts I have adduced ; and
although there seems to be at present no possibility of
actual proof, I venture to think that the evidence upon
which my view rests, indirect though it be, will not be
regarded as inconclusive.
NOTE.
*** Since the first edition of this work was published, Mr. Huxley's
essay on the " Physical Basis of Life," has been submitted to a very just
but clear and searching philosophical criticism by Mr. James Hutchison
Stirling, of Edinburgh, whose excellent treatise I very strongly recom-
mend my readers carefully to study. I should have taken from it many
extracts, but the work is easily obtained, and readers should see it in a
complete form. Mr. Stirling concludes in the following words, "In
short the whole position of Mr. Huxley, that all organisms consist
alike of the same life matter, which life matter is, for its part, due to
chemistry, must be pronounced untenable — nor less untenable the
materialism he would found on it."
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Hutchison Stirling, F.R.C.S., LL.D. Edinburgh : William
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